Posted by By Simon Ebegbulem on
BENIN - A Benin federal High Court yesterday sentenced two brothers to 13 years imprisonment with hard labour for vandalising Power.....
BENIN - A Benin federal High Court yesterday sentenced two brothers to 13 years imprisonment with hard labour for vandalising Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) installations estimated at over N4million. The court found Godspower and Eric Bluff guilty on a two-count charge of destroying and unlawfully removing PHCN cables and insulators from the power high tension lines in Ibada-Elume villages, near Sapele, which according to it was an offence punishable under section 9 of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap 410 Volume XX11 Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1990.
It was said that the tension lines connected power from Delta state to Edo state .The Presiding judge, Justice G.O Kolawole, said the two accused failed to convince the court that they had gone into the bush at 3am in the morning with a wheelbarrow and a panel van to carry banga (palm kernel) for a client,and described their escuse as a 'cock and bull story". Justice Kolawole also rejected the claim by the suspects that they were framed by members of their community because of their refusal to pay a N100 levy, describing the excuse as mischievous and 'untrue". Delivering the judgement,the judge sentenced the two brothers to five and eight years imprisonment respectively on each counts, both counts are, however, to run concurrently. According to him ' although I have powers to sentence Godspower and Eric to a maximum of 21 years imprisonment, but because of the law I was being lenient because the convicts appeared remorseful and needed to be given a second chance because they were young Nigerians".
. He added further that there was no other form of sentence apart from custody that he could give to the convicts. The judge pointed out that in giving the sentence, he was guided by the fact that the Nigerian prison system was facing a lot of constraints, among other problems, that had put it under a lot of problems.
It would be recalled that youths of the Ibada-Eleme Vigilance Group had arrested Godswpower and Eric in their village after they vandalised PHCN equipments in the area . Vanguard gathered that the vandals had hidden the cables and insulators in the bush after the operation but the two brothers were arrested by vigilante group in the area and was sebsequently handed over to the police whe the two brothers came to retrieve the stolen items. However, the two brothers claimed that they were contracted by a man but the man had escaped after when he learnt that they have been arrested. Speaking to newsmen after the judgment,the PHCN Public Affairs Officer in the Benin Transmission Region, Mr. Edward Adeniran, hailed the judegment aseerting that 'it would serve as an example to others or their sponsors because this is exactly one of the problems confronting this nation".