Court Sentenced 50-Year-Old Widow To 3 Years For Hemp Possession

Nwakpa Nwore a 50-year-old widow was sentenced to a three-year-jail term over unlawful possession of cannabis by a Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday.
The presiding judge Justice C.J. Aneke was the one who handed down the sentence after Nwoke had pleaded guilty to one count bordering on the offence.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency had arrested the accused on September 11, 2014 at Isiu Village in the Ikorodu Area of Lagos State.
The prosecutor for NDLEA Mr. Orji Kalu, told the court how Nwore was caught in possession of nine sacks of Cannabis Sativa weighing 59.15 kilogrammes.
Mr. Orji Kalu, told the court that the accused was in violation of Section 11 (c) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap. 30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The widow first appeared in court on October 10, 2014, without any legal representation were she promptly pleaded guilty.
When the trial resumed on friday a prosecution witness and a Superintendent of Narcotics with the NDLEA, Mr. Odede Lawrence, said, “On September 11 when the accused was arrested, two operatives of the NDLEA, Safianu Abdulsalam and Iluobe Frank, came to my office with nine sacks of a substance suspected to be Cannabis Sativa. I conducted a preliminary test on the substance, which proved positive for Cannabis Sativa. I also weighed the substance and found it to be 59.15kg.”
After tendering the nine sacks and other exhibits in court as evidence, the prosecutor urged the court to convict Nwore and sentence her accordingly.
Kalu said, “My Lord, in view of the plea of the accused person and all the exhibits tendered by the prosecution in this matter, we pray this honourable court to convict the accused person as charged and in line with Section 218 and 285(2) of the Criminal Procedural Act.”
The judge consequently convicted the accused as charged
As the judge was pronouncing the sentence he said he was inclined to temper justice with mercy because the accused had pleaded guilty without wasting the time of the court and considering that she was a first offender.
The judge also said he believed the widow, who had been in detention since her arrest in September last year, would have learnt her lessons and was deserving of a second chance.