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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