Motor boy jailed three years for hawking Indian hemp

A motor boy of a water tanker, Manga Afebende, who was nabbed for unlawful dealing in Indian hemp, has been convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos. Afebende was arrested on May 19, 2019 with 430 grammes of the banned weed by operatives of the National Drugs Law […]

A motor boy of a water tanker, Manga Afebende, who was nabbed for unlawful dealing in Indian hemp, has been convicted and sentenced to three years imprisonment by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Afebende was arrested on May 19, 2019 with 430 grammes of the banned weed by operatives of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

He was arraigned on December 12 before Justice Nicholas Oweibo on a count charge of unlawful dealing in narcotics.

The offence, according to the prosecutor, Mr Ichakpa Oigoga, contravened section 11(1) of the NDLEA Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The convict had pleaded guilty to the charge, which paved way for Oigoga to review the fact of the charge against him.

The prosecutor narrated to the court how Afebende was arrested on Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos, with the banned weed, which he tendered in court.

The prosecutor also tendered the convict’s statements, laboratory test analysis and the bulk of the confiscated weed.

The prosecutor urged the court to convict the defendant and sentence him as prescribed by the NDLEA Act.

Afebende, in his plea for mercy, told the court that he became remorseful during his stay in detention and promised not to go back to the illicit act, if giving a second chance.

Justice Oweibo, after listening to the prosecutor and the convict’s plea for mercy, sentenced him to three years imprisonment, starting from May 19, 2019 when he had been in custody.

The judge counselled the convict to use his stay in prison to turn a new leaf and not to go back to crime again.