A Federal High Court in Lagos, on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 56-year-old woman, Modinat Owolabi, to 10 years imprisonment for cocaine trafficking.
Justice Mohammed Aikawa sentenced the convict after she pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of drug trafficking preferred against her by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The convict had earlier pleaded guilty when she was first arraigned before the court and had maintained her plea when the matter came up on Tuesday.
After reviewing the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Mr Abu Ibrahim, tendered the convict’s harmonised ECOWAS passport, an e-ticket and a boarding pass obtained from her as evidence.
He also tendered three written statements of the convict, two requests of scientific aid forms, a drug analysis report, and a sealed brown envelope which were all admitted as exhibits.
After tendering the evidence, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence her accordingly.
Consequently, Justice Aikawa, pronounced the convict guilty as charged.
In her allocutus, (plea for mercy), defence counsel Mrs M. Ogunleye, urged the court to temper justice with mercy in its sentence, as the convict was a first time offender.
In his judgment, however, Aikawa held that the court was bound by the provisions of the law and must be guided by it.
He, accordingly, sentenced the convict to 10 years imprisonment beginning from the date of her arrest.
The charge marked FHC/L/301c/17, showed that the convict was arrested on May 19, 2017 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja.
The prosecution said that she was apprehended during the outward clearance of a Qatar Airline flight to Saudi Arabia, with 330 grammes of cocaine, a restricted narcotics prohibited by law.
He said that the offence contravenes the provisions of Section 11(b) of the NDLEA Act, Cap. N30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
