A Dutse Grade I Area Court, Abuja on Monday sentenced Nazifi Usman, an 18-year-old trader, to six months imprisonment for stealing a television set belonging to a church.
The Presiding Officer, Mr Suleiman Mohammed, who tried and found the defendant guilty, however, gave him an option to pay a fine of N10, 000.
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Mohammed held that the convict had failed to give the court a reasonable explanation why he committed the crime.
The Judge also ordered that the item, which was found in possession of the convict and was in police custody, be returned to the church immediately.
The convict, a resident of Tudun Wada in Bwari, was convicted of criminal trespass, housebreaking, causing mischief and theft.
He pleaded guilty to the offence.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Mr Tunde Arowolo, told the court that the convict was reported at the Bwari Police Station by Pastor Napoleon Yahaya of Garam village in Niger State, on May 25.
He said the the convict, on May 24, trespassed into Deeper Life Bible Church, Garam and stole a 45-inches LG television set, valued at N50, 000.
The prosecution also said that during police investigation, the convict confessed to the crime and also confessed that two of them carried out the criminal act but the other ran away.
Arowolo added that the convict, however, could not give satisfactory information on his partner’s whereabouts.
He noted that the act, however, contravened Sections 348, 346, 326 and 287 of the Penal Code. (NAN)
