19th January, 2012
An Abuja Senior Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday sentenced a 21- year-old applicant, Phillips Morris, to nine months imprisonment without an option of fine, for criminal trespass and theft.
Senior Magistrate Aliyu Shafa said the convict would serve three months for trespass and six months for theft, adding that the sentence would run consecutively.
Police Prosecutor Francis Tanko told the court that on Jan. 13, Victoria Jock of the National Mathematical Centre, Wuse, Zone 3, Abuja, reported the matter at the Wuse Police Station.
He said the accused, of no fixed address, entered Jock’s compound and stole her air conditioner valued at N45,000.
The prosecutor said the air conditioner was recovered from the convict, and that the offences contravened Sections 348 and 287 of the Penal Code.
The convicted, who pleaded guilty, said he stole the air conditioner because he had no work and wanted something to feed himself.
In his judgment, Shafa said the convict did not deserve mercy because he was not a first time convict.
He said the sentence would serve as a lesson to him, and a warning to others.