Lagos Court Jails Vietnamese for Trafficking in Pangolin Scales

The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos yesterday convicted a Vietnamese man, Nguyen Huy, of trafficking 200kg of pangolin scales.

Justice Daniel Osiagor sentenced Huy to three months imprisonment on each of two counts preferred against him by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

The court ordered that the sentence should run concurrently and commence from May 9, 2022, when Huy was arrested in Lagos.

Justice Osiagor gave the judgment following Huy’s ‘guilty’ plea to the charge and an allocutus by his counsel, Mr. Okey Mgbobukwa, praying the court to temper justice with mercy.

The Vietnamese was hauled before the judge yesterday following his arrest by the NCS and Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) in a joint wildlife enforcement operation targeting illegal wildlife traffickers of Pangolin scales from Africa to Asia.

Prosecution counsel Mrs. Onyeka Ohakwe, informed the court that Huy and some of his compatriots, said to be at large, were found in unlawful possession of the 200kg of pangolin scales on May 9, 2022, at Chicken Republic restaurant, Marina, Lagos.

She informed the court that the offence contravened Sections 64 and 166 of the Customs and Excise Management Act, 2004, as well as Section 5(1) of the Endangered Species (Control of International Trade and Traffic) Act, 2004.