NDLEA docks four men over unlawful importation of illicit drugs, each gets N5m bail
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A four-man drug syndicate, Ogunmeru Oluwafemi Oluwafunsho (49); Adewale Yusuf Adegbeti, (42); Adeleke Abdulrazaq, (43) and Dairo Quam(22) were on Thursday docked by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) before Justice Daniel Osiagor of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.
The four defendants were docked for unlawful importation of illicit drugs. They had pleaded not guilty after listening to the charge preferred against them.
According to the prosecutor, Mr. Augustine Nwagu, the defendants were arrested on March 10, 2023, at SAHCO import shed of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, during the inward clearance of Cargo on Ethiopian Airline flight from Johannesburg, South Africa via Addis Ababa.
The prosecutor told the court that all the defendants conspired among themselves to illegal and unlawfully export to the country, 11.90 Kilogrames of Heroin and 500 grammes of Cannabis Sativa.
He further told the court that the defendants committed the offences with one Zainab Morenikeji Agbaje, said to be at large.
According to the charge, the offences committed by the defendants contravened Sections 14(b) and 11(a)of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
In view of their plea of ‘not guilty’, the prosecutor, Mr. Nwagu, asked the court for a trial date, while urging the court to remand them in prison till the determination of the charge against them.
However, the defence counsel to the defendants, Chief Benson Ndakara and Uche Okoronkwo, urged the court to grant bail to their clients in the most liberal terms, as they have credible sureties that can stand for them.
Ndakara specifically told the court that his clients, Ogunmeru Oluwafemi Oluwafunsho and Adewale Yusuf Adegbeti, are suffering from ailments that cannot be handle by the correctional services.
But the prosecutor, vehemently opposed the application that the defendants be remanded at the agency’s custody. He argued that once a plea had been taken, the best place to remand the defendant is correctional facility.
In his ruling, Justice Osiagor, admitted bail to each of the defendants in the sum of N5 million with one surety each.
He also ordered that the surety must be a Grade Level 14 officer and above, and that both the defendants and their surety must submit three passport photographs to the court’s registrars.
The judge however remanded the defendants in the NDLEA custody till Tuesday, to perfect the bail terms, failing which they will be transferred to correctional facility. The judge adjourned trial of the defendants to November 1.