Two herders on Monday bagged one-year imprisonment for violating the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of Benue State.
Chief Magistrate, Isaac Ajim, of the Makurdi Chief Magistrate Court handed the conviction and sentence to the duo of Sani Adamu and Abdullahi Musa who hail from Ayangba in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State for the offence of open grazing.
Ajim however tempered justice with mercy after listening to the plea of the convicts for leniency and fined them the sum of N500, 000 each, which in default payment would serve a jail term of one year.
The magistrate in the suit, earlier filed by the police against the convicts noted that the prosecution called two witnesses, including a member of the State Livestock Guards and had proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt to warrant conviction of the herders.
He explained that the Livestock Guards officer gave an eye witness account, which no court of law would ignore, adding that the convicts were telling lies before the court when they said that they were in the bush looking for honey and failed to show any evidence or an instrument that they were actually looking for honey.
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