Six drug traffickers have been slammed with a total of 156 years imprisonment for offences bordering on drug dealing, transportation, and conspiracy to transport illicit substances filed against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The six drug traffickers were jailed by the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and Ogun states.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi.
The statement said the worse hit is a 27-year-old drug dealer, Ahmed Abdulsabur.
Abdulsabur, it said, was arrested in 2022 by NDLEA operatives and prosecuted in charge number FHC/AB/20C/2022 at the Federal High Court, Abeokuta, presided over by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik.
Delivering her judgment on the six counts charge brought against Abdulsabur, Justice Abdulmalik convicted and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment on each count, bringing the total number of his jail term to 60 years.
In a similar ruling, Justice Abdulmalik also sentenced another dealer, Olumide Elegbede, 32, to 20 years jail term; 10 years for each of the two counts charge brought against him in charge number FHC/AB/128C/2I. The judge ruled that the years of imprisonment in both cases will run concurrently.
Meanwhile, at the Federal High Court in Lagos, where the quartet of Okechukwu Umeh, Lanre Adebayo, Adigun Adeshina, and Emmanuel Omijeh, were arraigned on three counts in charge number FHC/L/87c/2023, the trial judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko, on Thursday, March 16, convicted and sentenced each of them to five years on count one; and seven years each on counts two and three.
“This brings the total number of years for each of them to 19 years jail term and the four of them to 76 years imprisonment.
“The convicts Okechukwu Umeh, 41, Lanre Ismaila, 47, Adeshina Fatai, 50, and Emmanuel Omijeh, 42, were arrested in connection with the seizure and N3million offered as bribe kept as part of the exhibits for their prosecution,” Babafemi noted.
The NDLEA spokesman added that while the judge ruled that the sentences should run concurrently, he also gave the four convicts the option of paying N20million in lieu of the jail terms.
Babafemi added, “This is in addition to granting the application by the NDLEA for the final forfeiture of a white colour Ford bus with registration number PHC 315 ZT, used in conveying 532. 8 kilograms of 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 N3 million 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 Lagos-Ibadan expressway at 2:35 am on Sunday, January 22.”
In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that a grandmother by the name, lforiti, has allegedly set her son, wife, and two grandchildren ablaze in the Apomu community, Akure, the Ondo State capital.