27th July, 2011
A 40- year-old woman, Oloyede Kubrat was on Tuesday in Lagos sentenced to three months in prison for failing to appear in court after her first arraignment on March 14.
Magistrate Salamah Matepo of the Yaba Magistrates’ Court, however, gave her option of N2,000 fine.
Matapo, while sentencing Kubrat, also blamed her counsel for “not giving her proper legal advice.“
She adduced that the convict did not have adequate legal knowledge and the implication of the offence for which she was sentenced.
“The court is bigger than anybody. And your excuse that your employer did not permit you to attend court to answer to the charges against you is untenable,“ Matepo told the convict.
She added that no court would take contempt of its orders lightly.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict and an accomplice (name withheld) were first arraigned on a three-count charge of conspiracy, fraud and stealing.
The two are accused of defrauding Mr. Taiwo Ganiyu of N435,000, under the pretext of buying him a bus for commercial purposes.
Before the sentence was read, the prosecutor, Sgt. Rita Mommoh told the court that Kubrat had failed to appear in court since the day of her arraignment.
Mommoh alleged that the convict was intentionally disrespecting the court.