A 45-year-old driver and member of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) Tapha Kazeem Mustapha, and two others, were today convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment for trafficking in hard drugs.
Justice Kehinde Ogundare of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos found Mustapha alongside the NURTW member Andrew Ukelere and Anthony Chiemerem guilty as charged by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
He therefore convicted and sentenced them.
The NDLEA had arraigned the trio on April 27, 2024, on charges bordering on conspiracy, trafficking in 13.9 kilograms of tramadol and 590 Litres of Pentazocine a psychotropic drug similar to Cocaine.
The prosecution counsel, Mariam I. Erondu, who was represented by Julian Negedu, told the court that they were arrested with the prohibited drugs on March 19, 2024, on the Long Bridge axis of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Lagos.
She told the court that their offences contravene the provision sections 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, and are punishable under the same Act.
The defendants therefore pleaded guilty to the charge.
Following their guilty plea, Justice Ogundare while adjourned the case to yesterday for reviewinh of facts and sentence, He ordered that all defendants be remanded at the Ikoyi-Lagos Center of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS).
However, when the case was called, for review of facts, the prosecutor called Mr. Benjamin Naetah, a Senior Exhibits Keeper with the agency, tendered the drugs and others exhibits, which the court admitted.
The prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence the trio in accordance with the sections of the NDLEA Act that they were charged with.
But the convict counsel, Chief Lilian Omotunde and Oreofe Ogunleye, in their alocutors, urged the court award a non-custodian sentence on their clients, being a first time offenders and for not wasting the time of the court.
Both defendants counsel submitted that: “the first convict is a first time offender, he is a member of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW). He was contracted by the roadside to deliver a good after Lagos State, but he was caught up by the law.
“The second convict is a 35 years old, medicine store attendant, who was sent on an errand by his master.I urged the court to award a non-custodian sentence.”
Also, counsel to the third convict, Ogunleye, equally urged the court to award a non-custodian sentence on her client. She particularly cited section 426(2) paragraphs a, b, d and e of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
Responding to their counsel submissions, the prosecutor cited Section 311 of ACJA, urged the court to consider the commercial quantity of the prohibited drug seized from the convicts and damages it would done to the country.
Justice Ogundare therefore sentenced the first and second defendant to two years imprisonment, while the third defendant was sentenced to a year imprisonment.
The judge however ordered both the first and second convicts to pay the sum of N500, 000, 00 each, and the third convict to pay the sum of N100, 000, 00 in lieu of the jail-term.
