Labourer bags I month imprisonment for armoured cable theft

Prison

A Wuse Zone 6 Chief Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, on Thursday sentenced a 25-year-old labourer, Victor Meyanga, to one-month imprisonment for vandalising and stealing armoured cables from National Park Service (NPS), Abuja.

Meyanga of Karmajiji village, Abuja, had pleaded guilty to a count charge of theft and begged the court for leniency.

Magistrate Aminu Eri, who convicted Meyanga, however, gave him N5,000 option of fine.

Eri warned the convict to desist from committing the crime as he would not get a light sentence next time.

The prosecutor, Fidelis Ogbobe, had, following the plea of the convict urged the court to try him summarily in line with Section 112(8) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ( ACJA), 2015.

Ogbobe told the court that the convict was arrested by one Bernard Esigbe of NPS and his team on July 30, during their routine patrol of the park.

He said that the convict vandalised and removed armoured cables without authorisation.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened the provision of Section 287 of the Penal Code.