NAN-H-34
Parents
By Blessing Ibegbu
Mararaba (Nasarawa State) Jan. 20, 2017 (NAN) A Senior Magistrate Court in Mararaba, Nasarawa State on Friday ordered that parents of a teenage fraudster must appear before it before it would pass sentence on her.
Magistrate Agwadu Jatau held that 18-year-old Queen Bua, who pleaded guilty to defrauding people using a `one-chance’ car, exhibited tendencies that could make her to be easily influenced into terrorism.
He said that failure of the parents to appear before the court on the next adjourned date would leave him with no option but give the teenager the maximum sentence for fraud.
“She has not been stable in her confessions to this honourable court.
“She told the court she has been in Mararaba since 2013 and has no house and that she lives with a friend in Mararaba till now. She has refused to disclose her friend to the court.
“She also testified that she passes the night with whoever she hooks up with during the day.
“With such characters, she can easily be influenced into terrorism or other crimes.
“This is what I wish to avert by insisting on seeing her parents before sentencing her,” Jatau explained.
The magistrate added that the teenager told the court that her parents were in Benue and equally submitted that she had no means of contacting them.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Bua pleaded guilty to a three-count charge of criminal conspiracy, impersonation, causing grievous hurt and theft.
She was charged alongside two others – Lukman Abdullahi and Mohammed Abubakar.
Abdullahi and Abubakar, however, pleaded not guilty.
The police said that Bua had been in the crimes since 2013 until Dec. 5 when she was caught with a Volkswagen Golf marked AL 647 DKA while trying to defraud a student on Nyanya-Keffi Road.
The case has been adjourned till Feb. 8 for sentencing of Bua, who has been convicted by the court. (NAN)
BLE/IGO
(Edited by Ijeoma Popoola)