Applicant, 22, bags six months imprisonment for stealing phone

A Jos Area Court on Friday sentenced a 22-year old applicant, Josy Ayeni, to six months imprisonment for stealing a cell phone valued at N5,500.

The convict was found guilty of stealing a Nokia XP phone belonging to one Miss Gift Kingsley.

The court, however, gave the convict an option to pay N2,000 fine and ordered him to pay the complainant N5,500 compensation.

The judge, Mr Godswill Longs, said the prosecution had convinced the court beyond reasonable doubt that the convict committed the offence.

``The confession of the accused that he stole the phone from the complainant has assisted the court to convict him.

``The court relied on the confessional statement of the convict that he actually committed the offence, to convict him.

``The court has been left with no option than to invoke Section 157(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code to convict the accused person,” he said.

Longs said the section stipulates summary trial for anybody who pleads guilty to an offence

Earlier, the prosecutor, Mr Yakubu Aliyu, had told the court that the accused committed the offence on Nov. 3.

Aliyu told the court that the complainant reported the theft at ``C`` Division Police Station on Nov. 4 at about 9 a.m.

He said the accused, who residents in the same compound with the complainant, was found with the phone during investigation.

Aliyu said that during the trial, the accused pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency, saying that he was a first offender.

The judge warned him to be of good character after his jail term, saying that the court would not be lenient with him in future if he engaged in such act.