Court jails two for illicit drug peddling in Lagos

Justice Nicholas Oweibo of a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, sentenced a 29-year-old woman, Adeola Adetutu, and a 54-year-old man, Godwin Johnson, to two years imprisonment for hawking an alcoholic drink laced with diazepam, popularly called ‘skushies’, and hard drugs in Lagos.

Skushies is a psychotropic substance similar to cocaine and heroin.
They were sentenced after they pleaded guilty, to the separate charges brought against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

Adetutu was arraigned on a count charge of unlawful dealing in three litres of an alcoholic drink laced with skushies, while the man was arraigned on a two-count charge of hawking and unlawful dealing in heroin and Methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant drug that is derived from amphetamine. It can be smoked, injected, snorted, or ingested orally.

During their arraignment, the prosecuting counsel, Ms. M. J. Mamza, told the court that the woman was arrested with the hard drug laced-drink, on June 7, at No. 2 Shemoye Street, Adura Bus Stop, Alagbado Area of Lagos State.

She further told the court that the man was arrested with the prohibited substances on May 23, at No. 123 Railway by Fashina Olateju Street, Mushin, Lagos State.

According to her, their offences contravened the provision of sections 11 (c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

Following their guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence them according to the sections they were charged with.

But in his allocution, their counsel, Prosper Oke Ojakovo, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing his clients.

Ojakovo told the court that the convicts were first time offenders, who did not have previous record of conviction, and that they have promised not to engage in crime if given a second chance.

In his judgment, Justice Oweibo said he has listened to the submissions of the prosecutor and the convicts’ lawyer, and sentenced each of the convicts to two years imprisonment each.

The judge, who gave them an option of fine, ordered the woman to pay N150, 000, while the man was ordered to pay N500, 000, in lieu of their jail terms.