Justice Ambrose Lewis-Alagoa of the Federal High Court, Lagos today convicted and sentenced a 40 years old man, Oke Noah to 3 years imprisonment or a fine of N1 million for allegedly dealing in 1 kilogramme of Cannabis Sativa.
Justice Alagoa handed down the sentence on the Oke Noah consequent upon his arraignment before the court on a one count charge of unlawful possession of the illicit drug.
When the matter came up for trial today, a prosecutor from the NDLEA, Aondofa Korinjo told the trial judge that the prosecution has a one count charge pending before the court and urged the court to allow the charge to be read so that the defendant can take his plea.
Consequently,the charge was read and the defendant pleaded guilty to same.
Following the guilty plea of the charge, Korinjo informed the court about the readiness of the prosecution to proceed with the trial by reviewing the facts of the case and without opposition from the defense counsel , Mr G.U Okaka, the prosecution reviewed the facts of the case by tendering all the relevant documents and exhibits.
After reviewing the facts of the case, Korinjo pleaded with the court to convict the defendant as charge.
Justice Alagoa in analysing the reviewed facts based on the evidence of the prosecution and the exhibits tendered convicted Oke Noah as charge.
In his allocutus before the court, counsel to the convict , Mr G.U Okaka pleaded with the court to temper Justice with mercy, adding that the convict is a first time offender who did not waste the time of the court by pleading guilty at the first instance.
He urged the court to grant an option of fine instead of custodian sentence.
After listening to the allocutus of the defense counsel, Justice Alagoa sentence the defendant to 3 years imprisonment or a fine of N1 million fine in lieu of imprisonment.
