by Oge Okonkwo

Pleading guilty to the charge of stealing a fowl, a Chief Magistrates’ Court in Minna, sentenced one  Abubakar Abdullahi to 12 strokes of the cane or an option of N5,000 fine.

The accused was sentenced by Magistrate Hassan Mohammed on Wednesday.

Narrating to the court, the police prosecutor Gunduma Ibrahim said the accused was arrested by men on patrol at the Mobile Roundabout, Minna when they saw him with the fowl suspected to be stolen on November 2.

Vanguard Newspapers reports:

Ibrahim said the convict could not give a satisfactory account of how he got the animal, valued at N1,500.

He said the offence was contrary to the Penal Code of Niger.

When the charge was read to the convict, he pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.

The prosecutor had urged the court to try him summarily in line the Criminal Procedure Code, based on his plea.