BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, has sentenced a 26-year-old man, Amachi Paul, to 15days imprisonment for stealing the sum of N920.
Magistrate A. O. Daramola, while delivering her judgement on Friday, ordered Paul, who has no feasible and traceable residence or work in Osun, to leave the state immediately after serving his jail term at the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Ilesa.
The court ordered Paul to return to Ogun State where he was living before coming to Osun.
When Paul was initially docked before the court on July 4, 2023 by the state Police Command, he was slammed with one count-charge of theft.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Akintunde Jacob, had informed the court that Paul, while wandering in the state capital on June 29, 2023, walked into a petrol station in the morning and snatched the sum of N920 from a fuel attendant.
According to Jacob, during presentation of the facts of the matter in court, Paul had bolted away immediately he committed the crime before he was nabbed and dragged to a nearby police station.
He said after investigation was concluded, the defendant was arraigned in court.
The charge read, “That you Amachi Paul on 29th June, 2023, at 11:20hours at Rano Filling Station, Osogbo in the Osogbo Magisterial District did steal a sum of Nine Hundred and Twenty Naira (N920:00k), property of one Adesina Akeem, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 383 and punishable under Section 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap 34, Vol II, Laws of Osun State of Nigeria, 2002.”
Paul had pleaded guilty to the charge after the clerk read out the allegation against him.
After presenting the fact of the matter on Friday, the police prosecutor had presented a copy of the statement the accused person tendered at the police, which was admitted as exhibit by the court.
Jacob said the defendant, though a first offender, according to the record of the police in the state, had committed a similar offence in Ogun State where he was living.
However, Magistrate Daramola held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, found Paul guilty as charged and convicted him.
She then ordered that the convict be sentenced to 15 days imprisonment and that after serving his term, he should leave Osun and return to Ogun State.
