A
National Youth Service Corps member, Helen Bando,NYSC has been jailed for one year
for attempting to travel to India with fake documents.
Convicted
and sentenced alongside Bando were Samuel Obiakor and Segun Alimi, who aided
and abetted the first convict in committing the crime.
Justice
Oluwatoyin Ipaye, while handing down the sentence on Monday, said the convicts
deserved their punishment notwithstanding their plea bargain because such cases
were becoming rampant.
The
judge noted that such criminal acts gave Nigeria a bad name and destroyed the
chances of other Nigerians with legitimate intentions to travel out.
The
convicts were arraigned on one count bordering on use of forged documents in
processing an Indian visa.
The
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission alleged
that the convicts conspired to submit forged documents to the Indian High
Commission sometime in 2013 to enable Bando obtain the country’s visa.
The
commission’s lawyer, Paul Bassey, told a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja that
the convicts violated sections 25(1) (a), 26 (1) (a) and (c) and Section 96(1) (a)
of the ICPC Act.
Following
their arraignment last week Friday, the trio had immediately pleaded guilty to
the crime.
They
begged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying that they were first time
offenders and promised that if set free, they would go and sin no more.
They
subsequently entered a plea bargain with their prosecutor, the terms of which
were a fine of N50, 000 and a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment.
But
in her judgment on Monday, Justice Ipaye said the court was not bound by the
plea bargain agreement between the defendants and the ICPC.
She
added that Section 75 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos
State was only to guide the court.
Ipaye
therefore held that Bando’s term would commence on Monday while her accomplices’
terms would start counting from June 2014 when they were first remanded in
prison.
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