Nigerian Businessman Jailed For Trafficking Drugs

A drug trafficker, Chibuzor Onyemaechi, will spend the next 10 years in jail for his crimes. A 31-year-old businessman, Onyemaechi Chibuzor, is to spend the next 10 years in prison, with hard labour to that effect, for trafficking in drugs. » The sentence was handed down by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos. Chibuzor's day of reckoning came when he was arrested by the men of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), on December 20, 2011, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, with 600 grammes of methamphetamine » , during an outward clearance of Emirates Airline flight to Malaysia, and was convicted after a trial that lasted for three years. He was first arraigned on March 15, 2012, before Justice Benedicta Molokwu, who is now retired, and granted bail in the sum of N1 million with two sureties in like sum, after pleading not guilty to the charge. Upon the retirement of Justice Molokwu, the case was reassigned to Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia, who revoked the bail earlier granted to him by the former court when he jumped bail on May 22, 2014, during the cause of the trial. The NDLEA had called two witnesses, and tendered 14 exhibits which included the convict’s statements, arresting officers’ statements, drug laboratory report, exhibit forms, the seized drug » , international passport and other traveling documents, which were admitted by the court. After reviewing the evidence, the judge convicted the accused as charged, holding that she was convinced beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of the prosecution that the convict actually committed the offence, and accordingly, sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour.