Dispatch Rider Sentenced To 3 Years For Using Bike To Traffic Indian Hemp

MICHAEL AKINOLA 

A dispatch rider, Adewale Adebayo, will be spending the next three years in prison custody for using his motorcycle to traffick drugs before he was caught by  the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Lagos State 

 

P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the judgment of the Federal High Court Lagos, which convicted and sentenced him to three years imprisonment for trafficking in 3.5 kilograms of cannabis Sativa, also called marijuana.

 

The convicted dispatcher rider was given the jail-term sequel to his change of plea, on a count charge made against him by the NDLEA in a charge marked FHC/L/14c/2021.

He was previously arraigned before the court sometimes in 2021, when he denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty to the charge.

However, at the resumed hearing, the dispatch rider signified his intention to change his plea. Hence the charge was read again to him and he pleaded guilty and pleaded for leniency.

 

The prosecutor, A. N. Okon, with C. O. Izuagba, presented the fact of the matter and tendered exhibits then urged the Court to convict and sentence him accordingly based on his plea and the Section on the NDLEA Act he was charged with.

 

However, his lawyer, Bolanle kolawole, in her allucutor, pleaded with the Court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing her client. The lawyer also pleaded with the court to give him a non custodian sentence in lieu of jail-term.

 

Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, after listening to the submission of the counsel and confirming from the prosecutor that the convict is a first time offender, who did not have any record of previous conviction, sentence him to three years imprisonment.

The judge however, ordered the convict to pay the sum of N1 million in lieu of the jail-term and also ordered that the bulk of the drug be destroyed if there is no  appeal against the judgment.

 

Charge Against The convict read: “that you Adewale Adebayo, Male, Adult on or about sometimes in January, 2021, at Iddo Park Oyingbo Area of Lagos Mainland, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court possessed 3.5 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa otherwise known as Indian hemp similar to Cocaine, Heroin and LSD and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 11(c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”