Labourer bags five years for stealing electrical fittings worth N332,750

A Jos Upper Area Court sitting in Kasuwan Nama, on Wednesday sentenced a 19-years-old labourer, Emmanuel Weng to five years imprisonment for stealing electrical fittings.

The Judge, Mr Lawal Suleiman, handed down the sentence after the convict pleaded guilty to the three-count charge of criminal trespass, mischief, and theft. He begged the court for leniency.

Suleiman, however, gave the convict an option of N 20,000 fine or face one-year imprisonment for trespass, N20,000 or one-year imprisonment for mischief and N40,000 fine or face three years imprisonment for theft.

Earlier, the police prosecutor, Sgt. Daniel Longwal, told the court that the case was reported at the Anglo Jos Police station, on February 16, by Kiyitwe Ngwan, of No. 13 Church Street in Jos.

Longwal said that Ngwan, who manages the properties of Mr Sunday Andong in Rayfield, reported that on the same date, the accused trespassed into one of the properties behind COCIN in Rayfield and vandalised the electrical fittings.

The prosecutor disclosed that during police investigation, the accused confessed to have committed the crime.

He said that investigations further revealed that the accused had gone to the house and stole electrical fittings valued at N332,750, and sold the same to an unknown person.

The prosecutor added that the offence contravened Sections 333, 313 and 273 and punishable under Sections 59, 313 and 277 of the Plateau State Penal Code law of Northern Nigeria.