Wallet Snatcher Bags 10 Months Imprisonment Without Option Of Fine

An Oshodi  Magistrates` Court in Lagos on Tuesday  sentenced a 24-year-old man, Wasiu Bakare, to 10 months imprisonment for snatching a wallet containing N20,000.

Senior Magistrate M.R. Osho-Adebiyi did not give an option of fine to Bakare who pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing.

The magistrate sentenced him to five months imprisonment on each of the counts, but ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.

Bakare had at his arraignment on August15 pleaded guilty to committing the offences, attributing it to “the handwork of the devil’’.
He had prayed for leniency.
When the case was called up on Tuesday for facts and sentence, he still admitted guilt, and blamed it on economic hardship.
“I left Ibadan for Lagos in search of greener pastures when my mother died as she had been the breadwinner of our family, “ Bakare told the court.
He said that he had been facing hunger since he arrived  Lagos.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Cpl. Kehinde Olatunde, told the court that Bakare and another person still at large stole  the wallet from Mr Joseph Omoniyi.
He said that the crime was commited on August  9 at about 9.30a.m. at the Anthony Bus Stop on Ikorodu Road, Lagos.
“Bakare met the complainant under the bridge by Anthony Bus Stop. He begged him for N100 so that he could buy something to eat.
“While Omoniyi was trying to give him money from his wallet, he snatched the wallet and ran away,“ Olatunde submitted.
According to the prosecutor, Omoniyi consequently shouted and attracted the attention of passersby who arrested Bakare and took him to the Ilupeju Police Station.
Olatunde said that the offences were punishable under Sections 390 (9) and 516 of the Criminal Code of Lagos State.