Court jails man 14 days for stealing phone in mosque

An Abuja Magistrates’ Court, yesterday, sentenced 26-year-old Rabiu Aliyu to 14 days imprisonment for stealing a mobile phone in a mosque. The Magistrate, Mr Zubairu Mohammed, who sentenced the convict, gave him an option to pay N3,000 fine. Mohammed said cases of theft were becoming rampant in the society so the convict must be punished to serve as deterrent to others. Earlier, the Prosecutor, Mr Simon Emmanuel, had told the court that Salisu Sani of KadoVillage, Abuja, reported the case at the Life Camp Police Station on March 27. Emmanuel said the convict, of UnguwarCementVillage, Life Camp, Abuja, stole the phone, valued at N5,000, from the complainant in the mosque on March 25.

He said after the complainant had finished praying in the mosque, he fell asleep with his phone beside him while the convict quitely took it and went away. The prosecutor added that when the complainant later woke up, he discovered that the phone was stolen. He said that the accused had confessed to committing the offence during investigation, but said he had sold it to an unknown person, an offence against the provisions of Section 288 of the Penal Code. Section 288 states that “whoever commits theft in or from any building, tent or vessel used as a human dwelling shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years or with fine or with both. The convict had pleaded guilty when the one-count charge was read to him and begged the court for leniency.