Lady gets option of fine
By Emma Ogbuehi
Six suspects have been handed various terms of imprisonment for engaging in drug trafficking. The convicts are, 25-year-old lady, Chioma Okocha and five men: Ndubuisi John, Haruna Aliyu, Saddam Abdullahi, Bashir Usman, and Usman Ibrahim. They were sentenced to a total of 141 years imprisonment for trafficking in Cocaine and Cannabis Sativa by Federal High Courts sitting in Benin, Edo and Abeokuta, Ogun state respectively.
Chioma Okocha was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail by Justice AC Obiozor of the Federal High Court, Benin for trafficking 200grams of crack cocaine following her arrest in the Edo state capital on September 24, 2021 by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA and her subsequent arraignment in suit no. FHC/B/136c/2021.
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The convict pleaded guilty to a one-count charge when her case came up in court on Monday, November 15.
The judge however granted her the option of paying N2million fine or spend 15 years in jail effective from September 24, when she was arrested while trying to deliver 200grams of Crack Cocaine to a customer at an eatery in Benin city.
The five men: Ndubuisi John; Haruna Aliyu; Saddam Abdullahi; Bashir Usman, and Usman Ibrahim were also convicted and sentenced to 126 years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Abeokuta presided over by Justice Ogunremi Omowunmi Oguntoyinbo in suit no. FHC/AB/105c/2021.
The convicts were arrested on September 14, 2021 along Lagos -Ibadan expressway conveying 46 bags of Cannabis Sativa weighing 552 kilograms in a truck and subsequently charged on three counts of transportation, possession and dealing in the illicit drug.
In her judgment delivered on November 9, Justice Oguntoyinbo sentenced the 1st, 2nd and 3rd accused persons to 30 years imprisonment each while the driver of the truck bagged 21 years and the motor boy/driver’s assistant 15 years in jail.
While Ndubuisi, Haruna and Saddam were sentenced to 10 years on each count charge, Bashir got seven years on each count charge and Usman 5 years on each count charge. The jail terms are to run concurrently.
Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) had recently, argued that the removal of the clause that allows for the option of fine for drug offenders from the Agency’s Act currently undergoing amendment in the National Assembly will strengthen the deterrence effect of court prosecution and conviction.
Marwa stated this in his remarks while defending the 2022 NDLEA budget proposal before the Senate Committee on Drugs and Narcotics.