A female member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Helen Bando was on Monday, November 3, 2014 sentenced to one year in jail by a Lagoa State High Court sitting in Ikeja for trying to travel to India with forged documents, Punch reports.
Bando was convicted and sentenced alongside two others – Samuel Obiakor and Segun Alimi – who were accused of aiding and abetting the first accused in committing the crime.
Presiding judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye who delivered the sentence said the convicts were getting a deserved punishment for their crimes regardless of their plea bargain as such incidents were becoming commonplace in the country, thereby giving the country a bad name and causing a hindrance on the chances of other Nigerians to travel out legitimately.
The convicts entered a plea bargain with their prosecutor, praying for a N50,000 fine and a maximum of six months jail time, which Justice Ipaye said the court was not bound to grant, ruling that Bando’s term should commence on Monday, November 3, 2014 while those of the accomplices should start counting from June 2014 when they were first remanded in prison custody.
