A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old labourer, Emmanuel Paul, to eight months in prison for stealing cell phones.
Paul, who resides in Kaduna State, had pleaded guilty to a count charge of theft.
He also pleaded for leniency.
The judge, Mr Aliyu Kagarko, gave the convict an option of N30,000 fine, warning him to desist from crime.
The judge said that the punishment would have been stiffer if Paul had not spared the court the rigour of protracted trial.
The prosecutor, Mr Stanley Nwaforaku, informed the court that Sgt. Joshua Simon of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Asokoro, Abuja, arrested and brought Paul to the Asokoro Police Station on Dec. 1, via a transfer letter.
Nwaforaku said that while Paul was working at a DIA construction site, he made away with one Gionee and one Tecno phones.
According to him, the worth of the phones were yet unknown.
The prosecutor submitted that the phones belonged to Paul’s co-workers – Felix Bishop and Ifeanyi Moses.
He said that during police investigation, Paul made a confessional statement and the phones were recovered from him.
Nwaforaku noted that stealing contravened Section 287 of the Penal Code.
