…To Serve 14-Day Community Service
…Fined N100,000 Each
Top Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele, also know as ‘Jenifa,’ and her husband, AbdulRasheed Bello, also known as JJC Skillz, were on Monday convicted and fined for flouting the Lagos State Infectious Disease (Emergency Prevention) Regulation 2020, by hosting a birthday party, by a Lagos court.
An Ogba Magistrates’ Court in Ikeja sentenced both husband and wife to 14-day community service and ordered the defendants to pay N100,000 naira each as fine.
Husband and wife had pleaded guilty to a one count charge preferred against them by the Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo, SAN.
Onigbanjo had told the court that Akindele and her husband, Bello, flouted the directive of the Lagos State governor when they gathered more than 20 people at their Lekki home.
Magistrate Y.O. Aje-Afunwa, who handed down the verdict, said the couple must serve 14 days community service and thereafter observe period of isolation.
Following their guilty plea, Onigbanjo asked the court to sentence them accordingly. The couple who were represented by their lawyer, Mr Abayomi Alagbada, however, pleaded for leniency.
Alagbada had 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.”
After taking their plea, Magistrate Aje-Afunwa stood the matter down for 30 minutes and went into her chamber.
Akindele and Bello were charged with gathering over 20 people at their home, contrary to the social distancing directives of the 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.
The offence is also punishable under Section 58 Public Health Law, Vol.9, Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
