Man receives 12 strokes for stealing fowl

A Minna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday sentenced one Abubakar Abdullahi to 12 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to stealing a fowl.

Magistrate Hassan Mohammed, however, gave the accused an option of N5, 000 fine.

The police prosecutor, Sergeant Gunduma Ibrahim, had told the court that policemen on patrol at Mobile Roundabout, Minna, arrested the convict with a fowl suspected to be stolen on November 2, 2013.

Ibrahim said the convict could not give a satisfactory account of how he got the fowl valued at N1, 500. He said the offence was contrary to the Penal Code of Niger State.

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

The prosecutor urged the court to try the accused in line with the Criminal Procedure Code, based on the pleas entered.