The long arm of the law yesterday caught up with a 31-year-old prisons warder, Frank Obi. He is to spend the next 10 years in prison for supplying restricted narcotics to inmates at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons in Lagos.
Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, handed down the sentence after the prisons official pleaded guilty to one-count charge of trafficking in hard drugs.
Buba reprimanded the convict for being a disgrace to lawful authorities before sentencing him.
According to the judge, “It is indeed very shameful that a prison official who knows the values of the prison system, and ought to be a custodian of the law, is now the perpetrator of crime.”
The court also held that the sentence shall take effect from May 6, when the convict was arrested, while the convict is to be jailed at the Ikoyi Prisons.
“Following the guilty plea entered by the accused, he is hereby convicted as charged, and, accordingly, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment without option of fine,” he said.
The convict was arraigned on Oct. 9 on a one-count charge of illicit drug deal. He had pleaded guilty, while the judge had adjourned the case for a review of the facts and sentencing.
Reviewing the facts, the prosecutor, Kalu Orji, told the court that the convict committed the offence on May 6 at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons.
He also said that the convict, who worked as a warder, met his waterloo when the prison authorities apprehended him for sneaking in about 3.8 kilogrammes of Cannabis Sativa, a.k.a Indian hemp, to some inmates.
Orji informed the court that the convict concealed the narcotic in an Indomie carton to avoid suspicion.
According to the prosecutor, further investigations revealed that the convict had been in the business of collecting money from inmates in exchange for the narcotic.
He said that after the close of investigations, the convict was then handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for prosecution.
The offence is said to contravene the provisions of sections 11 (c) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
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