A 56-year-old mother of four, Oluwayemisi Owolabi, was
yesterday sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Federal High Court, sitting
in Lagos, over cocaine trafficking.....
Justice Rilwan Aikawa convicted and
sentenced Owolabi after she pleaded guilty to one-count charge of drug
trafficking preferred against her by the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency,
NDLEA. While urging the court to convict and
sentence Owolabi, the prosecutor, Ibrahim Abu, reviewed the fact of the case, tendered
the convict’s harmonised Ecowas passport, an e-ticket and boarding pass as
evidence. Other evidence tendered before the court include three written
statements of the convict, two request of scientific aid form, a drug analysing
report, two evidence pouches, two transparent pouches containing the drug, two
scientific report of the drug, and a sealed brown envelope, which were admitted
as exhibits. The convict’s lawyer, Morenike Ogunleye, pleaded: “The convict is
a first time offender, and she is sober. She is a mother of four children, who
is single-handedly taking care of them, as she has separated from her husband.”
The judge asked the prosecutor, Ibrahim, for the punishment for the crime
committed as stipulated by the NDLEA Act, and the prosecutor said it is life
imprisonment. Justice Aikawa ruled: “I have listened to the plea made on her
behalf by the counsel, and also listened to the prosecutor that she has no
record of crime. I have to consider both her plea and what the law says about
the crime. “Consequently, I hereby sentence her to 10 years imprisonment,
starting from the day of her arrest,” which was in May 19 at the Murtala
Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, during outward clearance of Qatar
Airways flight to Saudi Arabia, with 330 grammes of cocaine.
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