A court in Vietnam has sentenced a 33-year-old Nigerian man to life imprisonment for trafficking nearly 3.5kg of drugs from Nigeria to the Southeast Asian country three years ago, local media reported.

The man, Ejiogu Benjamin Ikechukwu received the sentence at his second first-instance hearing opened by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Monday.  

He was charged with “illegally transporting drugs” pursuant to Article 194 of the Penal Code, the jury said.

At his first first-instance trial, the man was condemned to death on the same charges but he appealed the verdict.

The Supreme People’s Court in the city later opened the appeal hearing, during which it canceled the verdict and demanded that the case be re-investigated as there were signs of violations of criminal proceeding procedures.

According to the indictment, the man was caught with 3.48kg of white powder in a package when he arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on June 23, 2012 on board a flight from Nigeria that transited in Qatar. 

After a test on the powder showed that it was methamphetamine, a type of synthetic drug, police arrested Ikechukwu, according to Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.

The man then confessed to police that on June 6, 2012 he applied for a visa to Vietnam with a view to buying clothes for re-sale when he returned home to earn profits.

On the same day, an unidentified man asked Ikechukwu to bring some goods to Vietnam for him, and he agreed.

On June 20, 2012, the unknown man handed Ikechukwu a package from which customs officers found the drugs contained in 19 plastic bags hidden in 16 metal cylinders and a laptop adapter.

According to Ikechukwu’s testimony, the unidentified man said that when he arrived in Vietnam, someone would contact him to receive the package.

At yesterday’s hearing, Ikechukwu told the court that he had not known the package contained the drugs when he received it from the unknown man.

However, the court said that there was enough evidence to convict the foreign man of “illegally transporting drugs.”

Under Article 194 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, twenty years of imprisonment, life imprisonment or capital punishment can be given to those who are found guilty of illegally stockpiling, transporting, trading in or appropriating heroin or cocaine weighing one hundred grams or more.

The same penalties are also given to those who commit the crimes in one of the following circumstances: opium resin, marijuana resin or coca plasma weighing five kilograms or more; marijuana leaves, flowers, fruit or coca leaves weighing 75 kilograms or more; dried poppy fruit weighing 600 kilograms or more; fresh poppy fruit weighing 150 kilograms or more; other narcotic substances in solid form weighing 300 grams or more or in liquid form measuring 750 milliliters or more.

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