By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A Saudi Arabia-bound drug trafficker, Akanbi Silifat Tunrayo and her sponsor, Adebayo Adeola Wasiu were on Tuesday June 13 convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment each for smuggling 2.90 kilograms of Cocaine to the holy city..
Both the Saudi Arabia-bound drug trafficker and her sponsor were convicted and given four years jail terms, by
Justice Daniel Osiagor of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos handed down the sentence after the duo pleaded guilty to the two counts charge of unlawful export of the banned substance preferred against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
After reading the charge to them while in the dock, the NDLEA prosecutor, Mr Abu Ibrahim told the court that the defendants committed the offences on April 19, 2023, during the outward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight to Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia via Doha.
The court was told that the first convict, Adebayo Adeola Wasiu, connived with the duo of Alhaja Rashidat a.k.a. Mama Yinka and one Asumon, both now at large, and procured the second convict, Akanbi Silifat Tunrayo, to smuggle the banned drug.
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According to the prosecutor, in order to smuggle the drug out, the convicts starched the drug with cotton wool.
The prosecutor told the court that the offences committed by the convicts are contrary to Section 21 (2) (d) and punishable under Section 11 (b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap. N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The two convicts had pleaded guilty to the offences when the charges were read to them.
Following the ‘guilty’ plea of the convicts, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence them according to the Sections of laws they were charged with.
But their counsel, Chief Lilian Omotunde, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her clients.
She told the court that the convicts are first time convicts, who did not have previous record of conviction and that they did not waste the time of the court.
In his judgement, Justice Osiagor sentenced each of the convicts to two years imprisonment with two weeks of community service.
However, the judge ordered the convicts to pay the sum of N2 million in lieu of the jail-term.