An­na-Lisa Paul

A 38-year-old Niger­ian na­tion­al who is at­tend­ing uni­ver­si­ty in Trinidad was sen­tenced on Wednes­day to eight years in prison af­ter he plead­ed guilty to two counts of co­caine pos­ses­sion for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing.

How­ev­er, Solomon Okanume, of Sad­dle Road, San Juan, will on­ly serve four years, as the sen­tences are to run con­cur­rent­ly.

Okanume ap­peared be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate An­nette McKen­zie in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Court. The court heard that on Jan­u­ary 11 po­lice on pa­trol in­ter­cept­ed Okanume's car in San Juan, and dis­cov­ered 366 grammes of co­caine hid­den in car parts. Soon af­ter, the same group of po­lice searched Okanume's house and found 3.43 ki­los of co­caine hid­den in the lin­ing of a pic­ture frame.

Ap­peal­ing for le­nien­cy, Okanume said he was the fa­ther of one and was study­ing to pro­vide a bet­ter life for his fam­i­ly. McKen­zie lat­er found him guilty and hand­ed down the con­cur­rent sen­tences.

Al­so ap­pear­ing be­fore Mc Ken­zie, Mor­vant res­i­dent Em­manuel Chan­band was fined $10,000 for pos­ses­sion of mar­i­jua­na for the pur­pose of traf­fick­ing. Or­dered to pay $3,000 forth­with, Chan­band was grant­ed two weeks to pay the bal­ance. In de­fault, he will serve two years' hard labour.

Chan­band was ar­rest­ed on Ju­ly 8, 2008, in a car in Mor­vant at a road­block. Po­lice found a bag hid­den un­der Chan­band's seat which con­tained 1.3 ki­los of mar­i­jua­na. Chan­band, who was joint­ly charged with dri­ver Mar­vin Burke, changed his not-guilty plea and was fined.