By: Audrey Raymonda John
A Liberian national, Zainab Danzo, has been sentenced to twenty years imprisonment by Justice Mark Ngegba of the Freetown High Court after she pleaded guilty to transporting four compressed parcels of cocaine into Sierra Leone without lawful authority.
Danzo, a hairdresser and resident of Monrovia, Liberia, was charged with unlawful possession of drugs, contrary to Section 8(a) of the National Drugs Control Act of 2008.
According to the indictment, on 13 October 2024, at Jendema Town in the Pujehun District, Southern Province, the convict was found transporting 1.9 kilograms of cocaine, packaged in four compressed parcels.
During court proceedings, Danzo pleaded guilty to the offence after the charges were put to her. In her allocutus, she begged the court to temper justice with mercy.
In his plea in mitigation, Defence Counsel C. Okafor informed the court that Danzo is a mother of three, noting that her youngest child was only three months old when she was arrested. He urged the court to consider her family circumstances and her early guilty plea, emphasizing that she had not wasted the court’s time.
Justice Ngegba acknowledged the mitigation plea, noting that the court had considered the convict’s remorse, cooperation, and personal situation. However, he stressed that the grave impact of drug-related offences on society cannot be ignored.
He added that although the court had fully considered her guilty plea and the submissions made on her behalf, the severity and societal danger of the drug trade remain significant.
Justice Ngegba therefore sentenced Danzo to twenty (20) years imprisonment. In addition, he ordered that the cocaine tendered in evidence at the Magistrate’s Court be handed over to the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for proper destruction.