An Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court, on Tuesday, sentenced a 60-year-old man, Yusuf Ibrahim, to one year imprisonment for possession of Indian hemp.
The Chief Magistrate, Abdulhamid Lawal, sentenced the convict after pleading guilty to the offence. He, however, gave the convict an option of N5,000 fine.
Lawal said that the maximum punishment for the offence, under Section 5(b) of the Indian Hemp Act, LFN 2004, was four years imprisonment without an option of fine.
He, however, said that the convict was given an option of fine because of his mentally-ill wife he had to look after.
The convict, whose address was not provided, is facing a charge of possession of Indian hemp.
The prosecutor, Insp Bankole Olasunkanmi, had told the court that the convict committed the offence on December18, at about 09:30 am in Ado-Ekiti.
Olasunkanmi said that the police had found a bag of weeds, suspected to be Indian hemp, in possession of the convict, adding that he had confessed to the crime.
According to him, the offence contravenes Section 5(b) of the Indian Hemp Act, 1966.
