Man bags 1-year jail for stealing during church vigil

An Abeokuta Magistrates’ Court, on Friday, sentenced a 21-year-old man, Afolabi Samuel to one-year imprisonment for stealing a Techno phone valued at N76,000 and N52,000 cash.

Samuel, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to the two-count charge of stealing.

The Magistrate, Mr D.S. Ogongo, in his judgment, said that all pieces of evidence tendered in court had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of the offence.

Ogongo, therefore, sentenced Samuel to one-year imprisonment without an option of a fine.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Olaide Rawlings, had told the court that the convict committed the offences on Feb. 24 at Celestial Church of Christ, Itunu Parish in Ilawo area of Abeokuta.

Rawlings said that the convict, at midnight during the vigil, burgled and entered into the church through the window and stole a Techno Camon-16 phone valued at N76,000, property of one Mr Ganiu Adeola.

She told the court that the convict also stole the N52,000 cash, belonging to one Mr Dairo Theophilus.

All items, she added, were valued at N128, 000.

She added that the convict was caught with the help of a phone tracking device, which led to his arrest.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened sections 415, 383 and 390 (9) of the Criminal Code, Vol. 1, Laws of Ogun, 2006.