The Ekiti High Court has sentenced a man to seven years in prison for stealing Infinix Hot 8 phone valued at N64,000 and N8,000 cash.
26-year-old Omodara Dada was arraigned for burglary and stealing beforeJustice Lekan Ogunmoye on July 19, 2022.
Charges was armed robbery, which contravenes Section 312 (2) of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2011.
According to the charge, the convict, on February 13, 2022, armed with a knife, robbed one Tope Fakiyesi of his black Infinix Hot 8 phone valued at N64,000 and a cash sum of N8,000 in Ado-Ekiti.
To prove its case, the prosecution counsel, Albert Adeyemi, called three witnesses and tendered statements of the victim and defendant, a knife, and a cash sum of N8,000, among other exhibits.
Giving evidence during the trial, Mr Fakiyesi, a hotel manager, said that on that day, he was disturbed from his sleep by a sound in his hotel.
The hotel manager said that he woke up to see the convict trying to remove his plasma television and when he attempted to shout, the latter brought out a knife and threatened to stab him.
He said, “I later discovered that he had picked my phone and a cash sum of N8,000 I placed on the table. I held him from behind when he wanted to escape, shouted for help and he was overpowered with the assistance of others.’’
He said that the convict was thereafter handed over to the police.
The counsel to the defendant, Sunday Ochai, called no witness but urged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying his client was a first offender.
In his judgement, Mr Ogunmoye said, “The evidence produced at the hearing, in support of the greater offence, is short of sustaining the charge of armed robbery but established beyond reasonable doubt the lesser offence. The defendant is convicted for the offence of burglary under section 323 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State.”
He thereafter sentenced Mr Dada to seven years imprisonment starting from the date of his detention at the Federal Correctional Facility, Ado-Ekiti.
