A Magistrates’ Court in Gwagwalada, FCT, on Thursday sentenced a poultry attendant, Issac John, 27, to one year imprisonment for stealing 81 birds.
The police charged John, who resides behind Radio House, Gwagwalada, with two counts of criminal breach of trust and theft by servant.
Magistrate Yusuf Ibrahim, sentenced the defendant, after he pleaded guilty and begged for leniency.
Ibrahim, however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N10,000 for each of the offences, and to also immediately pay N145,800 as compensation to the complainant.
According to the magistrate, the convict will still have to pay the compensation even if he chooses to go to the correctional centre.
He said the punishment would serve as a deterrent to anyone planning to tread such path in the future.
The Prosecution Counsel, Abudullahi Tanko told the court that one Rasheedah Omalade, resident behind FRSC Kutunku, Gwagwalada, reported the matter at the police station on Nov. 4.
Tanko said that the complainant employed the defendant as a poultry attendant in her farm located behind Radio House.
He said the complainant entrusted 1,032 birds to the defendant to cater for them, but instead, he stole and sold 81 of the birds and converted the money to his personal use.
He said that the stolen birds were valued at N153, 900.
The prosecutor said the defendant had during police investigation admitted to stealing and selling the birds to one Umar, now at large.
The offences, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 312 and 289 of the Penal Code.
