Three Men To Serve 40 Months Jail Term For Stealing Palmoil

A Jos Chief Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday sentenced three men – David Bulus, 24, Adebayo Musa, 25, and Hafisu Ibrahim, 28 – to a total of 40 months in prison, for stealing palm oil.

Other items stolen by the convicts included phones and TV monitor, valued at N128,000, and N6,000 cash.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the first accused, Bulus, was charged with criminal trespass, house breaking and theft, while the second and third accused were charged with receiving stolen property.

The magistrate, Mr Jovita Binjin, sentenced the trio after pleading guilty to the crimes.

Binjin sentenced Bulus to 20 months in prison for the offences of trespass, house breaking and theft, while the second and third accused were jailed 10 months each, for receiving stolen property.

The magistrate said that the sentence was meant to serve as a deterrent to those who might want to engage in similar acts.

Earlier, the police prosecutor, Mr Shuaibu Mohammed, had told the court that one Ndubuisi Uche, resident at No. 38 Nabor, Nasarawa Gwom, reported the matter at the Nasarawa Gwom Police Station, on March 8.

Mohammed said that the first accused person, Bulus, broke into the complainant’s house and stole some items and listed them to include palm oil, a TV monitor, UPS, two phones, some scraps, and N6,000 cash.

The prosecutor told the court that Bulus later sold the stolen palm oil to one Hafiu Ibrahim, at the rate of N10,500, while the scraps were sold to one Adebayo Musa, at the rate of N2,500.

He said that the accused person sold the remaining items to two other persons, who had not been arrested.

“During police investigation, the accused persons pleaded guilty thereby running foul of sections 348, 346, 288 and 317 of the Penal Code,” he told the court.