A Federal High Court sitting in
Lagos, Nigeria, Wednesday [Jan. 23] sentenced a 37-year-old South African
woman, Mrs. Duru Gcimukwazi Lindiwefa
to 18 years imprisonment for attempting to export 5.5 kilogrammes of
methamorphine to South Africa.
The convict was arrested on 26 July,
2012 during the outward clearance of a South African airline to Johannesburg.
She pleaded guilty to a count
charge.
Her counsel, Eugene Okenyi, in his urged the court to be lenient with the
convict because she is HIV positive, and is married to a Nigerian man whom she
had a son for. But the husband is
nowhere to be found.
The counsel said she was not aware
that the substance she was carrying was a drug, as it was put in her bag by a
man who claimed to be a good samaritan who bought her a return ticket to South
Africa.
In her judgement, the presiding
judge, Justice Benedicta Molokwu,
said the convict showed sign of remorse.
She therefore sentenced her to 18
months imprisonment without an option of fine.
Justice Molokwu also ordered that she should be repatriated to South Africa
after serving her jail term.
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