A Federal High Court in Lagos has sentenced a 34-year-old man to six years imprisonment for trafficking 1.3 kilogrammes of heroin.

Justice Ayokunle Faji, who convicted Chukwudi Destiny last Friday, held that his jail term commenced from April 10, 2021, when he was arrested.

The judge also ordered the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) to confiscate the convict’s international passport and not issue another one to him unless he received a presidential pardon.

Destiny was arraigned by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on a count of unlawful export of 1,300 kilogrammes of heroin.

Prosecution counsel Juliana Imabong-Iroabuchi told the court that the convict was arrested on April 10, 2021, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, during outward clearance of Ethiopian Airways passengers at the screening point. Destiny was said to have ingested the prohibited substance but excreted the same afterwards.

He pleaded not guilty, but in the course of the trial, changed his plea.

In sentencing Destiny, Justice Faji reasoned that the convict’s change of plea was an afterthought, upon sighting the witnesses fielded against him by the prosecution.