A Grade 1 Area Court in Kado, Abuja, Monday sentenced a labourer, Ibrahim Yusuf, to 12 months imprisonment for attempting to steal PVC materials at a construction site.
Yusuf, of no fixed address, was arraigned on a three-count charge of joint act, causing hurt and theft.
The Presiding Judge, Alhaji Ahmed Ado, however gave the convict an option of N49,000 fine to be paid in installments of N7,000 over seven months.
Ado, however, sentenced Yusuf to five months in jail on count two for causing hurt without an option of fine.
The judge advised the convict to desist from crime, adding that his sentence was to serve as a warning to others who were engaged in criminal acts.
Before the judgment was delivered, Yusuf, who had pleaded guilty to the charges, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, and blamed the economic recession for his act.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Judith Obatomi, told the court that the convict committed the offences on April 14 at a construction site in Abuja.
Obatomi said that a security guard at Citec Mbora, Abuja, Mr Gowon Nanloh, saw the convict and two other accomplices, currently at large, attempting to steal some PVC materials at the construction site.
The prosecutor said Nanloh and his colleagues tried to apprehend the hoodlums but Yusuf stabbed one of the guards with a sharp wooden stick while two of his accomplices escaped.
Obatomi said that the convict was apprehended and taken to the Life Camp police station. (NAN)
