A Federal High Court in Benin City, Edo State has sentenced a major drug dealer, Mike Omoarukhe, his manager and three other workers in his cannabis farms to a combined prison term of 75 years.

The convicts were charged in July by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA) in a five count charge with number FHC/B/107c/2021 on possession of 183.5 kilograms of cannabis sativa,(Indian hemp) conspiracy to possess, cultivate and cultivation of 22 hectares of cannabis farms.

In his judgement on Thursday, Justice A.C. Obiozor sitting in Court 2 of the Federal High Court, Benin Judicial Division, sentenced the defendants to 15 years on each of the five counts. The terms are to to concurrently. The judge however gave the convicts an option of Seven Hundred Thousand Naira fine on all the counts, a development that did not go down well with the drug regulatory agency. 

Eons intelligence gathered that the Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) directed that an appeal be filed at the appellate court against the option of N700, 000 fine granted the convicts. 

Recall that men of the NDLEA had on July 1, 2021 stormed the Ughieudu forest, Uhunwonde LGA of Edo State, where six persons: Elijah John, Friday Emma, Itoro Emmanuel, Daniel Emmanuel, Udom Etok and Abraham Monday Thompson were arrested with 50kg cannabis.

Another operation in the same Ughieudu forest on 3rd July 2021 led to the arrest of Emmanuel Ekpeyoung. Three cannabis farms with a combined size of 22. 210421 hectares were destroyed and seizure of 133. 5kg cannabis recorded. 

Further investigations and covert operations led to the arrest of the thirty six year own farm owner at a drinking joint in Irrua, Esan Central Local Goverment Area after after a couple of weeks. Udom Etok and Abraham Monday Thompson were exempted from the charges as minors.

In another development, the anti-narcotic agency has filed a notice of appeal against the judgement of a Federal High Court in Lagos presided over by Justice D.E. Osiagor, who sentenced two defendants; Clement Ajayi and Bolaji Fajebe to three years imprisonment or a fine of Three Thousand Naira(N3,000) and two years imprisonment or a fine of Two Thousand Naira (N2,000), respectively, on the two counts charge of conspiracy and dealing in illicit drugs filed against them in charge number FHC/L/199C/2021.

The NDLEAs Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, Mr. Joseph Sunday filed the appeal at the Lagos Division of the Court yesterday. The Agency contended that the October 8th judgement by Justice Osiagor of giving the two convicts option of N3,000 and N2,000 fine is "Ridiculous, unwarrantable, unjustifiable and contrary to public interest".

The NDLEA explained that the Court never gave a justifiable reason for awarding the ridiculous penalty, which it said is contrary to Section 14 of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30 LFN 2004 which prescribes a penalty of not less than 15 years and not exceeding 25 years of imprisonment for the offence.

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