Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has discharged and acquitted a businessman, Nnadi Kingsley Ikenna, of drug related offences made against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Justice Dipeolu cleared him of the offences last Friday while delivering judgment in the charge marked FHC/L/400c/2023.
The judge held: “The evidence of the prosecution is made up of ‘conjured evidences’ which cannot secure the conviction of the defendant.”
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The judge said the prosecution failed to link the businessman to the offences.
Justice Dipeolu thereafter pronounced the businessman not guilty
“The defendant is hereby discharged and acquitted of the two counts against him,” the court declared.
Ikenna alongside side one Oseni Raheem Babatunde Ayodeji (now a convict), were charged sometimes in 2023 on a four-count charge of conspiracy, unlawful possession of 0.05 kilograms and 2.50 Kilogrames of cannabis Sativa a.k.a. marijuana.
During their arraignment, the businessman was specifically charged on conspiracy and procuring one Sonuga Temitope to possess 0.50 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa, a Narcotic Drug similar to Cocaine, LSD.
Prior to the trial, the convict admitted committing the offences and pleaded guilty to the charges against him.
But, Nnadi pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy and unlawful possession of 0.50 kilogrames of Cannabis Sativa.
NDLEA called seven witnesses.
During the trial, the convict who was charged alongside the businessman specifically told the court that he neither knew Nnadi nor had any relationship with him.
Other witnesses also told the court that they did not know the businessman.
In his defence, the businessman consistently and persistently maintained his innocence and denied all the charges against him.
He also told the court that during his arrest and interrogation by the NDLEA operatives who told him that the parcel containing the drug was sent to him, he replied that “the parcel did not have his name or phone number.”
He also told the court that when asked if he was expecting any parcel during his interrogation, he responded that the only parcel he was expecting was his missing luggage.
He also asserted to his interrogators that he did not procure nor expecting any drug.
Upon conclusion of his defence, Nnadi through his lawyer, Dennis Warri, informed the court that the prosecution had failed woefully to establish any of the counts of the charge against him.
He, therefore, urged the court to discharge and acquit him.
Delivering judgment on the matter, Justice Dipeolu, after citing several legal authorites and weighed the witnesses testimonies, held that there was no nexus between the businessman and some of the witnesses called by the prosecution.