Man gets five months’ imprisonment for stealing in market

A Karmo Grade I Area Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced one Abdullahi Mohammed to five months’ imprisonment for stealing four  phones worth N308,000 in the Utako Market, Abuja.

Mohammed, a resident of Gawgwalada, Abuja, had pleaded guilty  to a count charge of stealing and pleaded for leniency.

The Judge, Alhaji Inuwa Maiwada, however, gave Mohammed an option of N5,000 fine.

He ordered the convict to pay N308,000 as reparation to the complainants.

The judge who noted that Muhammed,saved the court the rigour of protracted trial, charged him to be of good behaviour and desist from crimes.

The prosecutor, Mrs Ijeoma Ukagha, had informed the court on May 6 that one Mr Ekeh Ogadinma of Utako Market and three others reported the case at the Utako Police Station.

Ukagha said that Mohammed  went into the shops of the complainants in Utako Market and stole their cell phones, all valued at N308,000

She said that the convict, arrested during police investigation, could not say the whereabouts of the phones.

“Right now, the phones in question are missing,’’ she submitted, adding that  efforts  by the police to recover the four mobile phones proved abortive.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 288 of the Penal Code.