A Lagos Federal High Court, has convicted and sentenced a mother of three kids, Mrs. Ugbe Chinwe Jacinta, to three years imprisonment, for trafficking in 8.50 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa, popularly called marijuana.
The convicted woman was given the jail-term by Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, after she pleaded to a count-charge of illegal import of the prohibited ‘weed’, made against her by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Awka, Anambra State based-woman, according to the NDLEA’s prosecutor, Bibiana Anagu, was arrested at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja-Lagos, where she had gone to receive the prohibited ‘weed’.
The prosecutor told the court that the offence committed by the convicted mother of three, contravened section 20(1)(a) of the NDLEA Act Cap. N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and punishable under the same Act.
The prosecutor, in reviewing the facts of the case, tendered among others, the convict’s confessional statement, bulk of the seized drug, certificate of test analysis and others.
After tendering the exhibits, which were admitted by the court, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence her based on her plea of guilty and exhibits tendered.
However, lawyer to the convict, Barrister Emmanuel Okenyi, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her client.
Okenyi, who described the convict as a victim of circumstances, told the court that she was a first time offender, and that she was deceived in carrying the prohibited substance.
He therefore urged the court to award a non-custodian sentence or an option of fine in lieu of the jail-term.
Justice Lewis-Allagoa after confirming from the prosecutor that the convicted woman did not have any previous conviction record, sentenced her to three years imprisonment.
The Judge however, ordered the convict to pay the sum of N30 million as option of fine in lieu of the jail-term.
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