Driver Odetunde jailed for stealing N7.2m sugar

By Paul Iyoghojie

A Tinubu Magistrates’ Court on Lagos Island, Lagos, Southwest, Nigeria has sentenced a driver, Kolawale Odetunde to one year and eight months imprisonment for diverting his employer’s 900 bags of sugar valued at N7,200,000 and selling them off.

The convict was jailed by Magistrate O. S. Abioye after he found him guilty in the two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing preferred against him by the police at the Ikoyi Division, Lagos.

Magistrate Abioye, however, gave the convict an option to either pay back the sum of N2m to the complainant and serve 120 hours of community service in a government-owned institution or serve the jail term.

Police counsel, Reuben Solomon told the court that trouble started for the convict in 2016 when he was sent to deliver 900 bags of sugar to a customer, but instead of delivering it, the convict diverted the sugar and sold them off.

He then lied to his employer that armed robbers robbed him of the goods, a claim the police said the convict knew to be false.

He said the convict eventually confessed that he diverted the goods during the investigation leading to his arraignment in court.