Court slams electrician 10 months for failing to pay N20,000 debt

A Dei-Dei Grade I Area Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, sentenced a 35-year-old electrician, Jonathan Balogun, to 10 months’ imprisonment for cheating a businessman of N20, 000.

Balogun, a resident of Tunga-Maji, had pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust and cheating.

The Judge, Mr Sulyman Ola, however, gave him an option to pay a fine of N20, 000, and ordered him to pay the complainant, Mr Aziz Adebayo, additional N20, 000 as compensation.

Ola warned that failure of Balogun to pay the compensation, would earn him additional two months’ imprisonment.

He warned him to desist from crime.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Mr Chinedu Ogada, told the court that the complainant reported the case at the Zuba Police Station on Sept. 28.

Ogada said that Balogun went to the complainant’s Bet Naija shop at Tungamaji and borrowed N20, 000 from him but refused to pay back.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provisions of Section 312 and 323 of the Penal Code.

Defence counsel, Mr Elom Aleke, had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, saying that Balogun had children and aged parents.