NAN-H-50
Imprisonment
By Amen Gajira
Minna, Jan. 16, 2018 (NAN) A Minna Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday sentenced a 30-year-old businessman, Abubakar Musa, to three months imprisonment for selling stolen cow.
The presiding Magistrate, Maryam Kings, however, gave the convict an option of N10,000 fine.
Musa was arraigned on a count charge of receiving stolen property, which contravened Section 317 of the Penal Code law.
When the charge was read to him, the defendant pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.
The police prosecutor, Sgt. Moses Emberga, told the court that the matter was reported by
Awwalu Musa of Bosso area at the ‘A’ Division police station in Minna on Dec. 7, 2017.
Emberga said Musa had approached the complainant and offered to sell a cow to him.
He added that the complainant bought the cow from the defendant at N67,000 not knowing that
it was stolen.
The prosecutor said the complainant took the cow to Beji market to resell it when it was seized from him by one Garba Haruna who claimed to be the owner of the cow.
He noted that N25,000 was recovered from the defendant during police investigation and Musa
confessed that one Auta, currently at large, sold the cow to him.
Emberga, thereafter, prayed the court to try Musa summarily in line with Section 157 of the Criminal Code Procedure.
He also prayed the court to order the defendant to pay N42,000 to the complainant, being the balance of the money he paid the defendant for the cow.
In her ruling, Magistrate Kings granted the prosecution’s prayer and ordered the defendant to pay the remaining N42,000 within one month. (NAN)
AMEN/OIF/HA
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Edited by Ifeyinwa Okonkwo/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu