Segun Kasali – Lagos
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced drug traffickers, Okechukwu Umeh, Lanre Adebayo, Adigun Adeshina and Emmanuel Omijeh, to nineteen years imprisonment.
The traffickers were arraigned on three counts bordering on drug trafficking by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Justice Akintayo Aluko who gave the verdict, also ordered the forfeiture of the bus used in conveying 532.8Kg of the Loud variant of cannabis on the day of their arrest and the N3m bribe they offered operatives of NDLEA.
Justice Aluko sentenced each of them to five years on count one, and seven years each on counts two and three.
While the judge ruled that the sentences should run concurrently, he also gave the four convicts the option of paying N20m in place of the jail terms.
“This is in addition to granting the application by the NDLEA for the final forfeiture of a white colour Ford bus with number plate PHC 315 ZT, used in conveying 532. 8kg of the Loud variant of cannabis on the day of their arrest, Sunday, January 22, 2023, along Lagos- Ibadan Expressway.
“The court also granted the final forfeiture of N3m offered as a bribe by the convicts to NDLEA officers.”
The drugs concealed with ‘take away’ food packs in 19 big cartons were seized in the white Ford bus heading to Port Harcourt, Rivers State along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway at 2.35 am on Sunday, January 22.
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