The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has convicted the 58-year-old Founder and General Overseer of Seraphic and Sabbath Assembly, Lagos State, Azuka Kenrick Nnodu, and two others for drug dealing.

The presiding judge, Justice Akintayo Aluko, convicted Nnodu and his two co-defendants Udezuka Udoka, 26, and 40-year-old Oyoyo Mary Obasi, following their ‘guilty’ plea to a six-count charge preferred against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The defendants were arraigned by the NDLEA for conspiracy, procurement of persons to unlawfully export, unlawful export of 14.90 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa and 204 grams of Methamphetamine, and unlawful possession of the hard drugs.

The prosecution counsel, Abu Ibrahim, told the court that the General Overseer and his co-defendants committed the offences with one Chisom, now at large, on February 9, 2023.

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Ibrahim said the defendants were arrested with the drugs at the NAHCO Export Shed, a Customs Point of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos State.

The defendants pleaded guilty to the charges.

Following their plea, Ibrahim reviewed the fact of the case and urged the court to convict and sentence the defendants in accordance with the NDLEA Act.

The defence counsel, Benson Ndakara, who expressed shock at the defendants’ guilty plea, said he was “taken by surprise at their change of mind, after dissipating extra energy, and time to prepare and file their various bail applications.”

Ndakara, however, pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy in sentencing the defendants, saying they were first-time offenders without any record of previous conviction.

Justice Aluko convicted the trio, but reserved judgement till an undisclosed date.

The judge also remanded the defendants in a correctional centre, pending the judgement.

The Star