A 26-year-old drug dealer, Matthew Bobby Imonitie, has been convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment for unlawfully being in possession of 4.033 kilograms of a banned substance, Methamphetamine.
This is the judgement by Justice Daniel Osiagor, of a Lagos Federal High Court in Lagos.
The court presided by Justice Osiagor, handed him the verdict after he pleaded guilty to a count charge upon his arraignment.
Matthew Bobby Imonitie, was arraigned before the court by the men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
The agency, according to the prosecutor, Mr. Lambert Nor, was arrested with the banned substance, on or about August 29, 2022, at Opic Estate Kayode Street, Agbara, Lagos State.
He told the court that the offence commited by the convict, was contrary to and punishable under Section 11 (c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Upon the convict’s guilty plea, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence him in consonance with the section law he was charged with.
However, counsel to the convict, Barrister Anthony Nnamoko, in his allocutus, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing his client, saying that the court should consider the quick plea of the convict to the charge, as he did not waste the precious time of the court.
He also informed the court that the convict was a first time offender who did not any previous criminal record for any crime.
After the court heard the counsel’s plea for mercy on behalf of the client, the judge sentenced the convict to seven years imprisonment.
The judge also ordered that the convict must perform a week community service under the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services, NcoS.
Justic Osiagor, however, awarded the sum of N400,000, against the convict in lieu of the jail terms. While also ordered that the drug seized from him be destroyed if there is no appeal against the judgement after the period stipulated by the law.
The charge against the convict read: “That you, Matthew Bobby Imonitie, Male, 46 years old, on or about the 29th day of August, 2022 at Opic Estate Kayode Street, Agbara, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, without lawful authority dealt in 4.033 kilograms of Methamphetamine, a narcotic drug similar to Cocaine, Heroin, and LSD and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 11(c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
