A 23-year-old welder, who pleaded guilty to for stealing a bag of garri and begged for leniency, has on Monday been sentenced to prison at the Mararaba Grade 1 Area Court in Nasarawa State.
File photo
A Mararaba Grade 1 Area Court at Aso Pada, Nasarawa State, on Monday sentenced a 23-year-old welder, Usman Abubakar, to 18 months imprisonment for stealing a bag of garri.
Abubakar, who resides at Shopping Centre Mararaba, was sentenced on a count charge of theft.
The judge, Mr Albert Maga, sentenced the convict after he pleaded guilty to the crime and begged for leniency.
The convict said that hunger led him to crime.
“It was hunger that led me to do it, I have stayed without food for days and I needed money to buy food. Have mercy on me and I promise never to do it again,’’ he pleaded.
The judge, however, gave the convict N5,000 option of fine.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Agabi Auta, told the court that one Anjenu John of Aku village, Mararaba, reported the matter at the ‘A’ Divisional Police Headquarters Mararaba on Aug. 25.
Auta said: “The defendant went into the complainant’s shop located along Darika Jummat Mosque, Mararaba and stole a bag of garri valued at N15, 000.
The prosecutor added that the defendant was in the process of taking away the bag of garri when he was apprehended by the complainant and handed over to the police.
He said that during investigation, the defendant confessed to stealing the item with a view to selling it and get money to buy other food items.
Auta said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 287 of the Penal Code.