Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced a 38-year-old South African woman, Will Jessica Ann, to 25 years in prison for importing 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria.
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Ann was sentenced on Thursday, September 17, after she pleaded guilty to unlawfully importing the illicit drug into the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
While delivering the judgment, Justice Egwuatu emphasized that Nigerian law does not take emotions into consideration when dealing with criminal offences.
According to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ann was arrested in July while travelling with her three-year-old son.
She was arrested during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways Flight QR1433, which arrived in Abuja from Doha.
The NDLEA had previously revealed that Ann was arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja in August, where she pleaded guilty to importing 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria on July 6.
During Thursday’s proceedings, Justice Egwuatu noted that Ann had admitted to committing the offence in her extrajudicial statement even before entering her guilty plea.
The judge explained that the law provides that a conviction follows a guilty plea and subsequently convicted Ann of the offence.
Following her conviction, the prosecution asked the court to consider the value of heroin when determining her sentence, stating that one kilogramme of the drug is worth about N18 million.
Ann, however, pleaded with the court for mercy and promised that she would never engage in such an act again.
The convict also told the court that she was remorseful and claimed that she did not know there were illicit drugs inside the bag.
After listening to both sides and considering her plea for leniency, Justice Egwuatu said, “Crime does not pay”, while emphasizing that the law is not influenced by “emotions”.
The judge sentenced Ann to 15 years’ imprisonment on Count 1 and 25 years’ imprisonment on Count 2.
However, the court ordered that both sentences should run concurrently.
Justice Egwuatu further ordered that if Ann does not appeal the judgment within the period allowed by law, the seized heroin should be destroyed.