Three hard drug dealers, Mr. Dada Biodun, 45; Mrs. Bamidele Olatokunbo, 35; and 27 years old Badmus Sodiq, have been convicted and sentenced to nine months imprisonment for unlawful drug trafficking, by a Federal High Court, Lagos.
Apart from the community service, Justice Musa Kakaki, who presided over the court however ordered each of the convicts to pay the sum of N800, 000 as fine option to the jail-term.
The convicted drug dealers were brought before the court by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in a charge marked FHC/L/196c/2026, on the charges of conspiracy, unlawful dealing and trafficking in nine kilograms of cannabis sativa, popularly called marijuana.
The convicts, according to the anti-narcotic agency, were arrested with the prohibited substance on March 1 and 15, 2026, at Eleran Igbe, Okeogun area of Epe in Lagos State.
The prosecutor, Barrister Peter Ekuri, had informed the court that the illegal acts of the convicts contravened sections 14(b), 11(c) and 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 2004.
The convicts have pleaded guilty to the charges when it was read to them.
Following their guilty plea, the prosecutor reviewed the facts of the charge, tendered all the exhibits which included the convicts’ confessional statements, bulk of the prohibited substance and others.
Upon conclusion of the reviewed of facts and tendering of exhibits, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence the convicts in accordance to the sections of the NDLEA Acts they were charged with.
But their lawyer, Chief Lilian Omotunde, in her allocutor, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her clients.
The convicts counsel urged the court to the cognizance that her clients are first time convicts, who did not waste the time of the and who did not have any record of previous conviction.
She thereafter pleaded with the court to give her clients the second chance by awarding a non-custodian sentence.
Delivering judgment in the charge, Justice Kakaki after confirming from the prosecutor that the convicts are first time offenders who did not have any previous conviction record, sentenced them nine months imprisonment each.
In alternative to the jail-term, the judge ordered each of the convicts to pay N800,000, While ordered that the bulk of exhibit be destroyed after the appeal period has lapsed.
