Ariket’s Accomplice: Appeal Court Declares Convicted Cocaine Pusher Lucky to Bag 25 Years

Matilda Omonaiye/

A convicted drug pusher has failed in a bid to push her luck at a Lagos Division of the Appeal Court.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Ebiowei Tobi, 68-year-old Odeyemi Omolara who was contesting a 25-year jail term slammed on her by a Federal High Court in Lagos was told that she was lucky to have bagged 25 years instead of life imprisonment which is the maximum penalty for the offence.

Omolara is the associate of a Lagos Socialite, Mrs. Funmilola Arike Ogbuaya, also known as Funmilola Ogundipe, who was convicted for trafficking 1.595 kilograms of cocaine.

Justice Hadizat Rabiu-Shagari had on June 29, 2017, convicted and sentenced Omolara who was 64 years old at the time of her conviction. She was charged before the court alongside the Lagos socialite, Arike, for attempting to export 1.595 kilograms of cocaine to Saudi Arabia.

The offences according to the prosecutor, Mr. Abu Ibrahim, are contrary to sections 14(b), 11(b) and 19 of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Justice Rabiu-Shagari awarded the jail term, after the convict changed her plea mid-way into the trial of the charge against her.

Following the change of plea by the convict, the prosecutor, Mr. Ibrahim, tendered several exhibits, including the convict’s five confessional and voluntary statements (both in English and Yoruba versions); her ECOWAS traveling passport marked A50324236; certificate of test analysis; drug analysis report; Egypt Air ticket; a large envelope; and two transparent evidence pouches where some of the seized drug was packaged. All these were admitted as exhibits A to L1, by the Court.

In sentencing and convicting the defendant who bears Ariyo Monsurat Olabisi, Justice Rabiu-Shagari held: “I have listened carefully to the defendant’s counsel. It’s true that the sentence is not punitive but reformatory and to serve as a deterrent to others. Consequently, the convict is hereby sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, starting from when she was first arrested.”

The judge also ordered that the ECOWAS passports and the Egypt Air ticket be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Dissatisfied with the judgment, the convict through her lawyer, Yakubu Galadima, approached the appellate court for upturning of the jail terms. While NDLEA through its lawyer, Barrister Abu Ibrahim, also urged the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.

Delivering judgment on the appeal on Friday, Justice Tobi, held: “The appeal lacks merit, as there is no court discretion on Section 11(b) of NDLEA Act, as what the section prescribed is life Imprisonment.

“The appellant was lucky to have been given 25 years jail by the lower court. Consequently, the appeal failed and it’s hereby dismissed.”

Both Ariket and her convicted accomplice were arraigned before the court in May, 2017.

Meanwhile, the trial of Lagos Socialite, Ariket, has been stalled since her accomplice was convicted in 2017, following the transfer of the trial judge, Justice Rabiu-Shagari, to another jurisdiction of the court.

One of the counts of the charge against the socialite reads: “That you Odeyemi Omolara a.k.a Ariyo Monsurat Olabisi, of 27, Adebule Street, Off Palm Avenue, Mushin, Lagos, on or about February 24, 2017, at Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos; during the outward clearance of passengers of Egypt Air Flight to Saudi Arabia, at the Egypt Air check-in-counter, without lawful authority exported 1.595 kilograms of cocaine, a narcotic drug, and you are thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 19 of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency Act Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”

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