Yesterday, 56-year-old mother of four, Oluwayemisi Owolabi, was sentenced to 10 years in jail 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.
