A Dei-Dei Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja has sentenced a 21-year-old man, Joshua Geoffrey, to three years imprisonment for stealing a tear gas canister from a police officer’s cardboard.
The man, who lives in Kubwa area of Abuja and charged with criminal charm and theft, was sentenced on Monday.
Geoffrey had earlier pleaded guilty and in tears begged the court for leniency.
He said: “I am so sorry sir.
“Please don’t send me to prison because I don’t have any relative here in Abuja.
“Please sir forgive me.
“I will not commit any offence again.”
The Area Court judge, Sulyman Ola, in his ruling, sentenced Geoffrey without an option of fine.
Ola said the convict was not a first time offender and had been arraigned in the court for different offences.
The judge warned the convict to be good a citizen and of good behaviour and desist from committing crime after serving his jail term.
He said the punishment would have been stiffer if the convict had not saved the court the rigour of protracted prosecution.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Chinedu Ogada, told the court that the convict was in detention inside the cell at the Byazhin Police Station in connection with a case of mischief and cell phone theft.
Ogada said a police officer opened the cell and brought out the convict to clean the cell and the crime office, but he used that opportunity and smartly broke two cardboard in the crime office.
He said the convict broke the cardboard belonging to two Police Inspectors and stole a tear gas canister, cell phone, N5,000 cash and a pistol.
The prosecutor said all the items the convict stole from the Inspectors’ cardboard were worth N73,500.
He said the convict was later tracked down and rearrested by the police.
He said during police interrogation, Geoffrey confessed that he used the pistol to threaten and dislodge people of their property.
Ogada told the court that during police investigation, some charms were recovered from the convict.
Ogada said the offence contravened the provisions of sections 217 and 287 of the Penal Code.
