A Dutse Grade I Area Court, Abuja on Thursday sentenced a carpenter, Yusuf Aliyu,28, to nine months in prison for stealing a 22-inches LG television and clothes.
The Presiding Officer, Mr Suleiman Mohammed, sentenced Aliyu after he pleaded guilty to theft and begged the court for mercy
Mohammed, however gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N40, 000.
The presiding officer held that the convict, who said he stole from the complainant because he owed him money, had no right to take the law into his own hands.
The act, according to Mohammed was not justifiable.
The convict, a resident of Barangoni in Bwari, was arraigned by the police and convicted by the court on a three-count charge of criminal trespass, house breaking and theft.
Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Mrs Idowu Ojo, told the court that the matter was reported at the Bwari Police station by Bitrus Gabriel of Kuduru village, Bwari on Sept. 9.
Ojo said that the convict on Aug. 26, trespassed the complainant’s house, broke his door and stole also stole two new wrappers, valued N4, 000 each, a shirt, two pair of trousers valued at N7, 000 and a cash sum of N11, 000.
The prosecution said that during police investigation, the convict confessed that he sold the tv set to one Emmanuel Sunday for N5000.
Ojo said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 348, 346 and 289 of the Penal Code. (NAN)