Woman drug-pusher loses court appeal

Ngosa appealed against the sentence in the Ndola High Court, which Judge Jane Kabuka upheld but changed it from hard labour to simple imprisonment.
Facts before court were that on November 12, last year, a Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) officer received information that on house number 6 in Walale Township was a woman dealing in cannabis.
Acting on the tip, the officers searched the house and found two plastics containing a dry loose vegetable matter and rolled into balls suspected to be marijuana.
Ngosa admitted to be the owner of the marijuana and was later detained at Luanshya police station after tests were conducted.
Ngosa was then charged with possession of 2.7kg of the banned drug.
In mitigation, Ngosa said that she was an old and sickly woman and that she sold drugs because of hunger and poverty.
But Judge Kabuka said the two-year term did not come with a sense of shock because the maximum sentence was 25 years imprisonment and upheld it.
(Sila Press Agency)