A counsel, Tunbosun Oladipupo, defending three suspected Indian hemp smokers, on Wednesday told Magistrate J. Omisade of an Osogbo Magistrates’ Court, Osun State, that his clients were smoking the substance to ward off evil spirit.

He also disclosed that the nature of their work demanded that they smoke hemp to have extra power to carry out their logging job. This is as one of the defendants, Samson Lucas while answering questions said the hemp works in their system than cigarette. His clients, Samson Lucas, 25, Ayo Olamide, 25 and Olalekan Omoniyi, 22 were docked before the court for smoking substance suspected to be Indian hemp. They were also arraigned for allegedly possessing charms.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the four counts of illegal possession of charm, a substance suspected to be Indian hemp, being armed and an attempted robbery contrary to and punishable under section 516 and 509 of the criminal code CAP 34 Vol. II Laws of Osun state, Nigeria 2002.

Police prosecutor Inspector Elisha Olusegun told the court that the defendant committed the offence on September 3, 2020 at about 1:00am at Orile-Owu, Osun state.

Oladipupo, however, urged the court to admit the defendants to bail in the most liberal terms. The presiding Magistrate, Mr Omisade in his ruling, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N300,000 with one surety each in the same sum.

He added that the surety must be their blood relation each and transferred the case to Gbongan Magistrate court for hearing on October 8, 2020 for hearing (Vanguard)