20th October, 2010
Pastor Emmanuel Mammah of the Living Chapel Gospel Church, Ejigbo, has been sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour for buying stolen goods by Magistrate S.O. Solebo of the Ejigbo Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.
Pastor Mammah was arrested for allegedly buying some electronic goods stolen by two suspects, Chikodi Uchenna Onwuegbunam, 22 and Timothy Ogologbo,18 at the Ejigbo Magistrate’s Court.
The cost of the stolen items was put at N178,000 but the pastor bought it for a paltry sum of N10,000.
The suspects, it was learnt, confessed to the police that they burgled the court and sold their loot to the pastor.
The police went to the pastor’s house and found the stolen items. They arrested him and recovered the items as exhibits. The recovered items include a television set, video and other electronic appliances.
The pastor was charged to court along with the suspects.
The pastor had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail before the judgment.
The presiding magistrate, Mrs. Solebo found him guilty and sentenced him to jail after finding him guilty of the offence.
He handed over his pastoral coat to his wife at the court and entered into a waiting Black Maria to the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria, to begin his prison sentence.
—Cyriacus Izuekwe