By Ramatu Garba

A Federal High Court sitting in Kano, on Thursday, sentenced a 36-year-old Cameroonian, Hoth Simplice-Patrick, to 15 years imprisonment for human trafficking.

The convict, who lives in Sabon Gari Quarters, Kano, was arraigned by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP) on three-count charge of human trafficking.

Delivering judgment, Justice Sa’adatu Ibrahim-Mark, did not give the convict any option to pay fine.

She found Simplie-Patrick guilty on all three counts.

Ibrahim-Mark held that the sentence shall start from July 2020, when the convict was arrested.

Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Mr Abdullahi Babale told the court that NAPTIP in collaboration with the Joint Border Task Force(JBTF) arrested the convict in July 2020.

Babale said that the convict acting on behalf of his Principal, one Albany, now at large on July 15, 2020 at his residence in Sabon Gari Quarters, Kano, procured the illegal entry of two females and one male, from Lagos State to Libya, enroute Kano.

Simplice-Patrick, however, pleaded guilty to the charge.

The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of Section 26(1) of the trafficking in Persons(Prohibition) Act 2015.

The defence Counsel, Mr Murtala Isa, pleaded for leniency on behalf of his client as a first time offender. (NAN)