Lady, 25, jailed 15 years for drug trafficking in Edo

A 25-year-old lady, Chioma Okocha, has been convicted for trafficking 200 grams of crack cocaine.

Ms Okocha was convicted and jailed for 15 years by Justice AC Obiozor of the Federal High Court in Benin, the Edo State capital following her arrest on 24 September 2021, by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The conviction comes on the heels of her arraignment in suit No. FHC/B/136c/2021.

The development was disclosed in a statement by NDLEA on Wednesday, noting that the convict pleaded guilty to one count when her case came up in court on Monday, November 15.

The judge, however, granted her the option of paying a N2 million fine or spending 15 years in jail effective from September 24, when she was arrested while trying to deliver 200grams of Crack Cocaine to a customer at an eatery in Benin city.

In another development, five men; Ndubuisi John, Haruna Aliyu, Saddam Abdullahi, Bashir Usman, and Usman Ibrahim were sentenced to a total of 126-years imprisonment for trafficking cocaine and cannabis sativa.

Read also: Nigerian man escapes death as Malaysian Court acquits him of drug trafficking

Their sentence was passed at the Federal High Courts sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The five men were sentenced by Justice Ogunremi Omowunmi Oguntoyinbo in suit no. FHC/AB/105c/2021.

According to the statement, the convicts were arrested on the 14th of September 2021 along Lagos -Ibadan expressway conveying 46 bags of Cannabis Sativa weighing 552 kilograms in a truck.

They were subsequently charged on three counts of transportation, possession and dealing in the illicit drug.

In her judgment delivered on November 9, Justice Oguntoyinbo, sentenced the 1st, 2nd and 3rd accused persons to 30 years’ imprisonment each while the driver of the truck bagged 21 years and the motor boy/driver’s assistant 15 years in jail.

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