A Gudu Upper Area Court in the FCT on Wednesday sentenced a 32-year-old applicant, Lukman Alhassan, to four weeks imprisonment for stealing transfer slips worth N110,000.
Alhassan, of Area 1, by Shagari Mosque in Abuja, had pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of theft. He begged the court to temper justice with mercy, saying: “I am jobless, still searching for job. I came to Abuja to seek for any available job”.
The judge, Mr Umar Kagarko, however, gave the convict an option to pay N5,000 fine. Kagarko said he gave the light sentence due to the convict’s plea for leniency.
Prosecutor Fidelis Ogbobe had told the court that one Agada Theophilus of Wuse II, reported the matter at Garki Police Station on March 20. Ogbobe said that on same day, the complainant “went to GT Bank to make transaction and filled three transfer slips. “In the course of the transaction, Lukman stole one of the transfer slips worth N110, 000 and attempted to make withdrawal of the said amount,’’ Ogbobe said.
He also said that during police investigations, the convict admitted to have committed the offence. The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 287 of the Penal Code.