Funke Akindele Bello and her husband Abdulrasheed Bello have been sentenced to 14 days community service.
NewsWireNGR had reported earlier that the celebrity couple pleaded guilty to violating a government lockdown.
They were arraigned at the Chief Magistrate Court 1 in Ogba, Lagos, on one count charge on Monday.
They were brought to court by detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of investigation, Yetunde Longe.
The prosecuting team was lead by the Attorney General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo.The magistrate found them guilty as charged and sentenced as follows: The defendants are to pay a fine of 100,000 each, sentenced to 14 days community service, three hours per day, excluding Saturday and Sunday.
Each defendant shall visit 10 important public places within Lagos State to educate the public on the consequences of non-compliance with the restriction order, and they must submit the names and phone numbers of every person who attended the party, the judge ruled.
They shall be placed on isolation by the state government to determine their COVID-19 status according to the verdict.
The brief fact of the case as contained in the charge is: “On 04/04/2020, the two accused persons held a party at their residents with over twenty persons in attendance contrary to the social distancing directives made in pursuant to Regulation 8(1)(a) and (b) & 17(1)(i) of the Lagos State Infectious Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulations 2020 and therefore committed an offence under Section 58 of the Public Health Law Cap P16 Vol. 9, Laws of Lagos State 2015. ”
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This sentence is a snow-manship. It is a case of cheap popularity that Lagos is working. From what I’m seeing from the picture above, the crowd in the Court also contravene the same law that was used to convict them.
Are we not in the same country, where a Mosque in the North has more than 300 people in attendance? They were just around 20 persons in the so-call party for God sake! It was easy for them to send people ho came to greet them away. Go to the market place, you will see crowd of people flocking around without any arrest. It is because they have been blessed that people are calling for their heads?
Akindele would have seeked the service of a competent lawyer instead of a baby lawyer asking them to agree that they are guilty.
What Lagos Government suppose to have done is to warn them seriously like what is applicable in advance country since Covid 19 pandemic started. These guys should be released now, and Police should stop harassing the guest that attended the party!