Three men have been convicted and jailed by a Federal High Court in Lagos, on Monday, for illegally dealing in illicit drugs.
Justice Kehinde Ogundare convicted and sentenced Kazeem Mustapha, Andrew Ukelere and Anthony Chinemerem to three years in prison.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, arraigned the three men on a two-count charge bordering on drug trafficking, to which they pleaded guilty.
Following the pleas, the court reviewed the facts of the case, with NDLEA counsel, Ms Ifeoma Erondu, tendering several exhibits in support of the prosecution’s case.
According to Erondu, the convicts committed the offences on March 19 on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The agency said Mustapha and Ukelere illegally trafficked 13.9kg of Tramadol, adding that Mustapha and Chinemerem trafficked 590 litres of Pentazocine.
She urged the judge to convict the three men based on their guilty pleas and evidence before the court.
Drug trafficking contravenes Section 11(b) of the NDLEA Act of 2004.
The judge admitted the exhibits in evidence and convicted them.
He sentenced Mustapha and Ukelere to two years imprisonment with an option of N250, 000 fine, each, on count one.
On count two, the judge sentenced Mustapha and Chinemerem to one year imprisonment with an option of a N100,000 fine, each.
He directed that the terms of imprisonment run concurrently while the fines should be cumulative.
Alleluia is the Assistant Editor and Content Writer at LagosPost.ng. She is a prolific writer and editor, she has written features and news stories on Lifestyle, Sports, Business, Politics and B2B marketing. She is also an event coordinator, host and social media content creator.
