P.M.EXPRESS reports that the case may have finally exposed the long shady deals going on in various prisons across the states in Nigeria following revelations by former inmates.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Abimbola Awogboro, sentenced the bricklayer to two years jail-term after convicting him of two-count charge bothering on trafficking and unlawful dealing in 5. 3 kilograms of India hemp leveled against him by the anti-narcotic agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The convict had pleaded guilty to the charges and pleaded for leniency.
The prosecutor, M. I. Erondu, while presenting the facts of the matter, told the Court that the convict was arrested with the banned weed on 2nd December, 2022, at Ikoyi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Lagos, which he was selling to inmates.
The prosecutor told the Court that the convict’s actions were contrary to and punishable under Sections 11(b) and 11 (c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30 LFN 2004.
She consequently urged the Court to sentence the convict in accordance with the Sections 274(2) and 375 of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
But the convict, asked the Court for mercy, saying that ‘this is first time he was selling the banned weed’. He promised not to engage in any form of crime if given the second chance.
Also, the convict’s lawyer, Bolanle Kolawole, in her allocution told the Court that her client was a bricklayer, who ‘smokes’ the Indian hemp for energy, while working.
She pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing him, while also praying the Court to award an option of fine in lieu of custodian sentence.
Justice Awogboro, in her judgment, after listening to the prosecutor and the convict, and after citing several legal authorities, sentenced the convict to two years imprisonment without an option of fine.
One of the charges against the convcit read; “That you Rasheed Bolaiji, Male, 31 years old on or about the 2nd day of December 2022, at Ikoyi Custodial Centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, without lawful authority trafficked 5.3 Kilogrames of Cannabis Sativa, a drug similar to Cocaine, Heroin and LSD and you thereby committed an offence as provided for and punishable under Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30 LFN 2004.”