For stealing a mobile phone belonging to an undergraduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Miss Nwabueze Oyinyechi, a 21-year-old man, Abiodun Olalekan, would spend six days in prison.
An Ile-Ife Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osun State on Thursday, convicted Olalekan on a two-count charge bearing on attempted felony and stealing brought against him by the police.
Police prosecutor, Sergeant Ona Glory, had informed the court that the convict sneaked into the student’s room at 149, Oroki Street, via Modakeke-Ife road and stole the phone.
According to the prosecutor, Onyinyechi was outside her room brushing her teeth at about 06:30pm, unaware that the convict had entered her abode and was robbing her.
Luck was said to have ran out on Olalekan when he ran into Oyinyechi, after stealing her ITEL 1503 mobile phone valued at N15,000.
The victim raised the alarm which attracted other residents of the area to her apartment.
Olalekan was then nabbed and mobbed before he was handed over to the police.
Glory said Olalekan committed an offence contrary to Section 383 (1) and punishable under Sections 390 (9) and 412 of the Criminal Code Cap 34 Volume 11, Laws of Osun State, 2003.
Olalekan pleaded guilty to the charges and begged the court for leniency in sentencing him.
There was no lawyer to stand for him.
The Magistrate, Mrs Risikat Olayemi, frowned on the convict for stealing, advising him to engage in meaningful job to eke out a living.
She sentenced Olalekan to 30 days imprisonment on each count with an option of N5, 000 fine on each of the counts.
The magistrate ruled that the terms of the sentence should run concurrently while the fine would be cumulative.
According to the magistrate, the convict should have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment on each count but she had to pity him because of the injuries he sustained when he was mobbed at the scene of the crime.
