Admin l Wednesday, May 22, 2019
IKOYI, Lagos, Nigeria – A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos today convicted one Onueuka Chirotam Sylvanus (44 ) and sentenced him to 19 years imprisonment for unlawful importation of hard drugs from Kenya.
He was convicted by Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo to 19 years. According to the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Sylvanus was arrested May 18, 2018, at the Murtala International Airport, Ikeja-Lagos, during inward clearance of passengers who arrived from Addis Ababa via Ethiopian Airline.
In the charge, marked FHC/L/242c/18, Sylvanus was said to have conspired with one Chidi, who resides in Tanzania and one Emma living in Nigeria but now at large, to commit the crime which contravenes sections 11(d), 11(a) and 14(b) of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency Act CapN30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Lawyer to the convict, Mrs. U. A. Ekwegh had pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy . Ekwegh told the court that her client is a first time offender and that he has been remorseful and promised not to engage in crime. Ekwegh also told the court that she had counseled the convict that crimes does not pay. She also urged the court to grant her client reformatory punishment instead of punitive sentencing.
Sentencing the convict, Justice Oguntoyinbo held that “I have heard the convict’s counsel plea for leniency. I have heard the counsel saying the convict is a first time offender but the law must take its course.
The judge however held that the jail terms shall run concurrently and from the first date he was arrested. The judge also ordered that the convict’s ECOWAS international passport be forfeited to the federal government of Nigeria and that the seized drugs be destroyed if there is no appeal after 90 days.
