N40,000 Theft: Student Bags Six Months Jail Term

A Grade 1 Area Court in Dutse, Abuja, on Friday sentenced a 24-year-old student, Aliyu Musa, to six months imprisonment for stealing N40, 000 with a stolen Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card.

The presiding officer, Suleiman Mohammed, who convicted the student, however, gave him an option of N30, 000 fine. Mohammed held that the convict failed to give the court a reasonable explanation of why he committed the crime.

He also ordered that the money be confiscated from the convict by the police and returned to its owner. Musa, who resides in Ushafa area of Bwari was convicted for joint acts and theft. He pleaded guilty to the charges.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Tunde Arowolo, told the court that the convict was reported at the Bwari Police Station by one Emmanuel Anyade, a businessman in Ushafa village, Bwari, on December 14.

According to Arowolo, the student went to the complainant’s shop where he operated mobile money transactions through the Point Of Sales (POS) and withdrew N40, 000 from a first bank account belonging to one Amadi Ogechi.

“He also returned the next day to withdraw another N20,000 from the same account when the owner of the shop asked him to produce an identity card that tallied with the account. “He failed to do that and was thereby arrested,”’the prosecutor said.

He added that during police investigation, the convict also confessed to the crime but said he was sent by one Musa Maiwake who is presently at large, to withdraw the money and take it to him at Maraba in Nasarawa State.

The prosecution noted that the act, contravened sections 79 and 287 of the penal code and punishable under the same.”

Source: NAN