Funke Akindele, a Nigerian actress, has been found guilty of violating COVID-19 lockdown order given by the Federal Government.
Newsone Nigeria reports that the Nollywood actress and her musician husband, Abdulrasheed Bello, popularly known as JJC Skills, were found guilty of violating social distancing order on Monday, April by a Magistrate court sitting in Ogba area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city.
This burgeoning online news platform understands that the Ogba Magistrate Court fined the Nollywood actress and her husband N100,000 each for flaunting the Lagos State Infectious Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020.
Delivering judgment on Monday after the couple pleaded guilty, Magistrate Y.O. Aje-Afunwa ordered the defendants to pay N100,000 naira each as fine. The magistrate also held that the couple must serve 14 days’ community service and thereafter to observe a period of isolation.
Newsone Nigeria reports that the celebrity couple who were arraigned before Magistrate Aje Afunwa pleaded guilty to the one-count charge brought against them by the Attorney General of Lagos State, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN).
The Attorney General of Lagos State told the court that Funke and her husband Bello, flouted the directive of the Lagos state Governor when they gathered more than 20 people at their Lekki home.
The charge reads: “That you, Funke Akindele, Abdul Rasheed Bello on the 4th day of April 2020 at 9, Gbadamosi Close, Amen Estate, lbeju Lekki in the Lagos Magisterial District gathered at the aforementioned address with over twenty persons contrary to the social distancing directives of Mr Governor of Lagos State made pursuant to Regulation 8(1)(a) & (b) and 17(1)“) of the Lagos State Infectious Disease(Emergency Prevention)Regulation 2020 and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 58 Public Health Law Cap P16 Vol.9 Laws of Lagos State, 2015.”
The couple who were represented by their lawyer, Abayomi Alagbada, however, pleaded for leniency after pleading guilty to the charge.
Alagbada said: I plead for leniency on the following grounds; both of them are first offenders, they are respectable members of society and have two young children”.
Following the defendants’ guilty plea, Onigbanjo asked the court to sentence them accordingly. After taking their plea, Magistrate Aje-Afunwa stood the matter down for 30 minutes and went into her chamber.
