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A High Court judge on Friday sentenced a mother of three to 20 years in prison for the possession of 800 grams of tramadol, signaling a continued judicial crackdown on drug-related offenses in Sierra Leone.
Justice Mark Ngegba handed down the sentence to Monica Kumba Kaiwandi after finding her guilty of the unlawful possession of 165 tablets of the prohibited drug. The tablets were discovered in July 2025 during an incident at the Pademba Road Male Correctional Center.
The 20-year term follows a landmark judicial directive issued late last year mandating stricter penalties for drug crimes. While the 800-gram quantity is significantly smaller than those found in major trafficking operations, Justice Ngegba applied the severe sentencing guidelines despite the defendant’s lack of a prior criminal record.
State Prosecutor A. Jalloh presented evidence from the preliminary investigation, which included testimony from Detective Police Constable Umaro J. of the Transnational Crime Unit (TCU). According to police records, 165 pink tablets were seized and registered in the Crime Exhibit Book under serial number 88/2025.
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Forensic analysis conducted by Detective Assistant Superintendent Jacob Stevens confirmed the substance was tramadol. The remaining 155 tablets were produced in court as Exhibit F1-155.
During the trial, Kaiwandi’s legal representative, M.Y. Conteh, argued for a non-custodial sentence or leniency, noting that Kaiwandi is a housewife and the sole breadwinner for her family.
In a tearful address to the court (allocutus), Kaiwandi pleaded for mercy, citing her responsibilities to her three children. However, Justice Ngegba ruled that the evidence of possession was “unequivocal.”
“Based on the evidence presented in court by the prosecution, it is very clear that the defendant was unlawfully in possession of the above drugs,” Justice Ngegba stated. “I therefore sentence her to 20 years imprisonment.”
The conviction falls under Section 8(c) of the National Drug Control Act, 2008, which has seen increasingly rigid enforcement as the government seeks to curb the country’s growing synthetic drug crisis.
