A Kaduna State Chief Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday sentenced a teenager, Kefas Dauda, to eight months imprisonment for stealing a laptop and two cellphones.
Dauda, who resides in the Barnawa area of Kaduna, was charged with trespass and theft.
Magistrate Ibrahim Emmanuel, who sentenced Dauda after he pleaded guilty to the charge gave him no option of fine.
He also ordered the convict to either pay N237,450 as compensation to the complainant, Williams Timothy, or the stolen phones.
The magistrate said that the judgment would serve as a deterrent to those who would want to indulge in the act.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Chidi Leo, told the court that the case was reported by the complainant on September 29 at the Barnawa police station.
Leo said Dauda went to the complainant’s house and stole his official laptop valued at N450,000. He also went to another house and stole two phones valued at N225,000.
He added that sometime in July of the same year, Dauda also trespassed into the house of one Shehu Hassan in the same community and stole his plasma television valued at N84,000.
The prosecutor said that all phones and television stolen by Dauda were sold to one Raymond now at large.
“He was caught in the community with the laptop which was returned to the owner, but the phones and television were already sold, ” the prosecutor said.
According to him, the offence is punishable under Sections 98 and 217 of the Kaduna State Penal Code, 2017.