COURT SENDS WIDOW TO SIX MONTH COMMUNITY SERVICE WITH TWO MILLION NAIRA FINE

By Olayiwola Ibrahim // Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Wednesday has sentenced a middle age woman Isioma Ogaonye to six months community service for dealing in cannabis and Methamphetamine.

Justice Deinde Dipeolu also ordered Isioma to pay the sum of two million in addition to the six months community service.

Isioma, a mother of one, who also claimed to be widow, was ordered to perform the community service under the supervision of the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA, the agency that prosecuted her for drug related offences.

In addition to the community service, Justice Dipeolu also ordered the convict to pay the sum of N2 million, in lieu two years of custodian sentence.

The court gave the above verdicts of the convict, after she pleaded guilty to the offences slammed on her by the anti-narcotic agency.

The convicted widow, according to the prosecutor, Juliana Negedu, was arrested on January 31, 2024, at Ogombo, Ajah area of Lagos State, with 766 grams of cannabis sativa, popularly called marijuana and 15 grams of Methamphetamine, a narcotic similar to Cocaine and heroin.

She told the court that the convict’s acts are punishable under sections 11 (c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N 30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

The convict admitted commiting the offences, after the charges were read to her.

Consequently, the prosecutor urged the court to convict and sentence her in accordance to Sections of the law she was charged with.

But her counsel, Oke Ojakovo, in his allucutor, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy, saying that the convict is a first time offender, who did not have any record of previous conviction.

Ojakovo, particularly pleaded with the court to give his client a fine option or community service in lieu of the custodian sentence.

Justice Dipeolu in his judgment, sentenced the convict to six months community service and to pay the sum of N2 million, in default to 2 years imprisonment.