Court jails man for stealing N3,060

A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court on Wednesday sentenced a 22-year-old businessman, Kingsley Okoh, to three months imprisonment for stealing N3, 060.
The Judge, Mr Garba Ogbede, however, gave the convict N 20,000 option of fine.
Ogbede said that: “I have no option than to sentence the convict accordingly since he had pleaded guilty to the charge.”
He also ordered the convict to pay the complainant N3, 060 restitution.
“The punishment would have been more severe if you had not pleaded guilty,” the judge ruled.
Okoh, who resides in Anguwa Tiv Tundunwada Lugbe, Abuja, was charged under Section 288 of the Penal Code for stealing.
Earlier, the Prosecuting Counsel, Ms Oporomo Vivian, told the court that on May 21 one Francis Onah of Kapwa Village in Lugbe reported the case at Lugbe Police Station.
Vivian said that the convict criminally trespassed into the complainant’s building material shop at FHA Lugbe at about 11.04 p.m. and stole his N3, 060.
She said that the complainant caught the convict in the act and raised an alarm.
The prosecuting counsel said that the convict admitted committing the offence during police investigation and interrogation.
Following the plea of guilty by the convict, the prosecutor prayed the court to try him summarily under Section 347 of the Administration of Criminal Justices Act, 2015.