4th May, 2022
Funmilayo Okunade
An Ado-Ekiti Magistrates’ Court, on Wednesday, sentenced a self-confessed phone thief and an ex-convict, Femi Ayelegun to seven years imprisonment for stealing N45,000 phone inside a car.
The convict, whose address was not provided, was sentenced to imprisonment without an option of fine.
Ayelegun had told the court that he had stolen a lot of phones that and he normally sell them to traders at Atikankan area of Ado Ekiti and that he has gone to jail three times.
The Magistrate, Mrs Dolapo Kay-Williams, sentenced the ex-convict after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
In delivering her judgment, Kay-Williams, said if the defendant was given a minimal sentence, he would still be a burden to the society and to himself.
“In view of this, the defendant is sentenced to seven years imprisonment as provided for by Section 302 (1) (b) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2021,” she ruled.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Sodiq Adeniyi, told the court that Ayelegun committed the offence sometimes in 2021 at Okuta-Gbokuta-lori Area in Ado-Ekiti.
Adeniyi said the convict stole a phone valued at N45,000 inside a Nissan Almera Tino car with registration number KLE 71 AA, belonging to one Mr Olumide Omoyajowo.
He said that on the fateful day, Ayelegun broke the glass of the front passenger door of the car and also stole a handbag containing N200,000, a Dell laptop valued at N240,000.
The prosecutor said that the also contained in the bag was a N62,000 phone, the property of Mrs Victoria Fajuyige.
According to him, the offence contravened Section 302 (6) of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2021.
Adeniyi told the court that the convict was a habitual criminal.
“He has been imprisoned three times in the past, therefore, I urged the court to give him the punishment he deserves,” the prosecutor told the court.
In his confession before the court, the convict Ayelegun, “I have stolen a lot of phones that I cannot remember and normally sell to traders at Atikankan area of Ado Ekiti. I am an ex-convict, I have been to the prison three times.’’
Counsel to the convict, Mr Kayode Oyeyemi, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy in view of his guilty plea. (NAN) g)