Court Jails Two Men For Unlawful Possession Of Elephant Tusks, Pangolin Scales

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, convicted and sentenced two men, John Kanu, and Obinna Eze, to four years imprisonment for conspiracy and unlawful possession of 839.4kg of pangolin scales and 145kg of elephant tusks. Both Kanu and Eze were given the jail-term by Justice Nicholas Oweibo after they pleaded guilty to the charges against them by the Federal Operation Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), Lagos. The two convicts were arraigned alongside Anthony Onyebuchi and Monday Nnamani in an amended charge marked FHC/L/123c/22.The convicts and the two men had pleaded not guilty to the charges when they were arraigned before the court. However, at the resumed hearing of the charge, yesterday, the two convicts informed the court of their intention to change their plea, which was granted by the court. Following the new development, the trial judge ordered that the amended charge be read to them. The two convicts pleaded guilty to the charge, while Anthony Onyebuchi and Monday Nnamani pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them. With the convicts’ guilty plea, the prosecutors, Mr. David Ereh, Michael Osong and Abidemi Aluko, while reviewing the case of their charge, told the court that the convicts and others on February 2, 2022 conspired among themselves to warehoused the prohibited items at Adeba in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State. The prosecutors told the court that the convicts’ actions contravened the laws. They urged the court to convict those that pleaded guilty to the charges and sentence them according to the sections of the laws that they were charges with, while a trial date is giving against those that pleaded not guilty. The convicts’ counsel, Chukwu Agwu, in his allucutus, pleaded with the court to tamper justice with mercy in sentencing them. Agwu told the court that the convicts are first term offenders, who did not have previous conviction record, and that the court should consider that the convicts did not waste precious time of the court. In his judgment, Justice Oweibo sentenced the two convicts to two years imprisonment each on count one and two, and pardoned them on count tree. The judge adjourned till September 28 for the trial of the remaining two defendants.