Man bags six-month imprisonment for peddling marijuana

A Federal High Court in Lagos State has sentenced a 22-year-old man, Tunde Morakinyo, to six-month imprisonment for unlawfully dealing in 600 grammes of marijuana.

The judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, sentenced the marijuana peddler following his guilty plea to the charge brought against him by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). He got a one-count charge of unlawful dealing in the banned substance.

NDLEA prosecutor, Mr Fingere Dinneys, told the court that the defendant was arrested by his agency’s operatives on February 5, 2020, along ljora-Badia Railway Line, Lagos, where he was selling the prohibited substance.

He told the court that during the defendant’s arrest, he was found in possession of 600 grammes of the prohibited ‘weed’, an offence contrary to and punishable under section 11(c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30, Laws of the Federation 2004.

Following his guilty plea, the prosecutor told the court to pronounce him guilty as charged and convict him accordingly. However, the defendant’s counsel, Bolanle Kolawole, urged the court to temper justice with mercy.

Kolawole urged the court to take judicial notice that her client did not waste the precious time of the court, as he pleaded guilty to the charge against him, adding that he had become remorseful since he was arrested, promising not to be involved in any of such again.

After the submissions, the judge asked the prosecution if the defendant had any record of previous conviction or criminal record, but the prosecutor said there was none to his knowledge.

Justice Aneke, therefore, pronounced the defendant guilty as charged and sentenced him to six-month imprisonment, commencing from the day of his arrest on February 5, 2020.

The judge, however, fined the convict in the sum in N50,000, as an option to custodian sentence.