Benenoir national bags 2yrs imprisonment for importing 1,960 kg of Cannabis Sativa
By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Justice Musa Kakaki of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has convicted and sentenced a Benenoir national Hounsou Chegoun to two years imprisonment without an option of fine for drug trafficking .
Chegoun conviction was sequel to his guilty plea to a three counts of unlawful importation and illegal possession of the banned substance.
When the matter came up for trial on Tuesday, the prosecutor from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Chidinma Izuagba informed the court that the prosecution has a three counts charge pending before the court and applied to the court to order that the charge be read so that the defendant can take his plea.
The charge was subsequently read and the defendant pleaded guilty to same.
Following the guilty plea of the defendant, Izuagba reviewed the facts of the case by tendering necessary documentary exhibits and the bulk of the seized marijuana and urged the court to convict the defendant as charged and based on his plea .
Justice Kakaki thereafter convicted the defendant as charged after reviewing the evidence placed before the court.
Upon the conviction of the defendant, his counsel Mr Godwin Okaka made allocutus on behalf of the convict.
In his allocutus, Okaka pleaded for leniency, adding that the defendant is a first time offender with no criminal record .
Okaka added that the defendant is remorseful and has promised never to go back into crime again if given another opportunity. He further asked the court for an option of fine in lieu of custodian sentence.
However while sentencing the convict, Justice Kakaki said that the court cannot close its eyes to the evil hard drugs is causing among the country’s youth and the damage to the reputation of the country in the committee of nations.
The judge also held that the court cannot in good conscience close its eyes to the huge quantity of drug involved and the harm it would have caused if not intercepted by the anti- narcotic agency.
Consequently Justice Kakaki sentenced the convict to two years imprisonment without an option of fine.
The charge against the convict reads:
That you HOUNSOU CHEGOUN, Male, Adult, Benenoir, on or about the 24th day of December 2024 was arrested by officers of the NDLEA Special Marine Unit (SMU) Operatives while you were unlawfully in possession of 1,960 Kilogrammes of Cannabis Sativa, a narcotic drug similar to Cocaine, Heroin, LSD and by which act you committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 as altered.
COUNT I I
That you HOUNSOU CHEGOUN, Male, Adult, Benenoir, on or about the 24th day of December 2024 was arrested by officers of the NDLEA Special Marine Unit within Nigeria Territorial Waters for importation of 1,960 Kilogrammes of Cannabis Sativa into Nigeria and by which act you committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 11(a) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 as altered.
COUNT III
That you HOUNSOU CHEGOUN, Male, Adult, Benenoir on or about the 24th day of December 2024 was arrested by officers of the NDLEA Special Marine Unit (SMU) Operatives for aiding the importation of 1,960 Kilogrammes of Cannabis Sativa, a narcotic drug similar to Cocaine, Heroin, LSD into Nigeria territorial waters and by which act you committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 14(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 as altered.
