A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court on Wednesday sentenced a 22-year-old businessman to three months imprisonment for stealing N3,060.
A 22-year-old businessman, Kingsley Okoh, has been sentenced to three months imprisonment by a Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court in Abuja on Wednesday for stealing N3,060.
Garba Ogbede, who ruled on the case, however gave the convict N20,000 option of fine, and said: "I have no option than to sentence the convict accordingly since he had pleaded guilty to the charge."
The Judge also ordered the convict to pay the complainant N3,060 restitution. "The punishment would have been more severe if you had not pleaded guilty," the judge ruled.
Okoh, who resides in Anguwa Tiv Tundunwada Lugbe, Abuja, was charged under Section 288 of the Penal Code for stealing.
Earlier, the Prosecuting Counsel, Ms Oporomo Vivian, told the court that on May 21 one Francis Onah of Kapwa Village in Lugbe reported the case at Lugbe Police Station. Vivian said that the convict criminally trespassed into the complainant’s building material shop at FHA Lugbe at about 11.04 p.m. and stole his N3,060, adding that the complainant caught the convict in the act and raised an alarm.
The prosecuting counsel said that the convict admitted committing the offence during police investigation and interrogation, and following the plea of guilty by the convict, the prosecutor prayed the court to try him summarily under Section 347 of the Administration of Criminal Justices Act, 2015.