Court jails two Nigerian for drugs

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The Greater Accra Regional Tribunal on Monday

sentenced two Nigerians for various drugs offences.
Mondistus Nidimakor was jailed for attempting to export cocaine, while

Gabriel Alaoma was jailed for attempting to import heroine.
Nidimakor was sentenced to 11 years' imprisonment in hard labour for

attempting to export 73 pellets of cocaine without lawful authority and

possessing narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
Mondistus Nidimakor pleaded guilty and the court convicted him

accordingly.
The Tribunal ordered the destruction of the drugs weighing 959.46

grammes.
The case as presented by Mrs. Yvonne Attakorah Obuobisa, Principal

State Attorney, is that on January 16, 2006 Nidimakor arrived at the Kotoka

International Airport (KIA) to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam.
The prosecution said while he was going through departure formalities,

he was arrested on suspicion that he was carrying drugs.
Nidimakor was therefore escorted to the 37 Military Hospital and an

ex-ray conducted on him indicated that he had some foreign materials in

his stomach.
He was subsequently put under careful observation and he expelled 73

pellets of materials suspected to be a narcotic drug.
The prosecution said the pellets were sent to the Ghana Standards

Board (GSB) for analytical examination and a report received indicated the

pellets expelled by Nidimakor were cocaine which weighed 949.46

grammes.
The tribunal also sentenced Gabriel Alaoma to 10 years' imprisonment

in hard labour for importing and possessing heroine weighing 4475.388

grammes without lawful authority.
Alaoma who earlier on pleaded not guilty after being on remand for four

years changed his plea to guilty.
The tribunal therefore ordered that his sentence should commence from

the day of his arrest.
The prosecution has it that on March 12, 2004, Alaoma arrived at KIA

from Karachi, Pakistan and was en route to Cote d'Ivoire.
The prosecutor said his movement at the transit lounge aroused

suspicion of officers of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB).
NACOB officials therefore picked him up for a search and when his

briefcase was searched thoroughly, they found four large parcels of

powdery substances concealed in a false compartment.
The parcels were duly examined by the forensic department of GSB

and their report indicated that the drugs were heroine.