A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced a businessman and Chief Executive Officer/Director of G Care Pharm Limited, Megwalu Chukwudi Bob-Manuel, to four years imprisonment over the illegal export of a controlled psychotropic substance.
Justice Akintayo Aluko handed down the sentence after Bob-Manuel pleaded guilty to two counts bordering on the unlawful procurement and exportation of 8.30 kilogrammes of Raphnol, a substance under international drug control.
The court ordered that the four-year term imposed on each count run concurrently, with the sentence backdated to the day of his arrest.
According to the prosecutor, Arit N. Okon, the offence occurred on July 24, 2026, at the NAHCO Export Shed within the Customs area of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. During the examination of a consignment bound for Nairobi, Kenya, Bob-Manuel allegedly enlisted one Justina of Tina Travels Service Limited and one Anosie Ebube of Fair Express to facilitate the export of the drug. He was also accused of personally attempting to export the substance to Kenya without lawful authority.
The prosecution said the acts contravened Sections 21(2)(c) and 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and are punishable under Section 11(b) of the same Act.
Bob-Manuel admitted to the offences and pleaded guilty to both counts. His lawyer, Chief Benson Ndakara, who appeared alongside Kate Igbo, urged the court for leniency, citing his client’s guilty plea, his status as a first-time offender, and the absence of any prior conviction. The defence also asked the court to consider a non-custodial sentence in place of jail time.
Justice Aluko, weighing the quantity of the substance involved against the mitigating factors presented by the defence, sentenced Bob-Manuel to four years on each count, to run concurrently. The judge, however, granted the defence’s plea for an alternative, ordering that the convict pay a ₦1 million fine in lieu of serving the jail term.
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