A 33-year-old man, Julius Ovihion, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, has been convicted and sentenced by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to six months at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.
The trial judge, Justice Yellin Bogoro, also ordered the convict to perform six months’ community service.
Bogoro held that the community service shall begin after the convict had completed the six months’ sentence.
The convict was arraigned by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on a two-count charge bothering on drug trafficking.
He pleaded guilty to the charges.
After the convict’s plea, the prosecutor, M.J. Mamza, reviewed the facts of the case through an NDLEA officer, Lucky Oghalifu.
The documents tendered before the court included the statement by the convict, request for scientific aid form, packaging of substance form, drug analysis report, a brown sealed envelope and a bulk exhibit.
The court, accordingly, admitted and marked the evidence.
After analysing the content of a transparent pouch in the brown envelope containing some of the narcotics, the prosecutor consequently urged the court to proceed and convict the defendant.
She relied on the provisions of Sections 274(2) and 356(2) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 as well as the guilty plea by the defendant.
The court, accordingly, convicted the defendant.
During a plea for mercy, the defence counsel, Okeh Ojakovo, begged the court to show mercy on the convict, saying he was a first-time offender.
He told the court that the convict, a stylist, has a promising future.
Ojakovo also told the court that the convict had learnt a bitter lesson and urged the court to mitigate the sentence.
The court consequently sentenced the convict to a term of six months to be spent at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre as well as six months of community service, which will be done after serving out his sentence.
The court also ordered that the narcotics seized from the convict should be returned to the NDLEA for destruction.
In the charges, the convict was said to have unlawfully dealt in 100g of cannabis sativa and three grammes of metaphetamine
Both substances are categorised as restricted by law as they are similar to cocaine and other psychotropic substances listed in the NDLEA schedule as being prohibited.
The offences contravene the provisions of Section 11(c) of the NDLEA Act Cap N30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
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