A Dei-Dei Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Tuesday sentenced a 19-year-old applicant, Habibu Abdullahi, to four months imprisonment, for stealing iron rod.
Abdullahi of Giri Abuja, pleaded guilty to criminal trespass and theft and begged for leniency.
The Judge, Saminu Suleiman, however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N20,000, and warned him to desist from committing crime in the future.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Chinedu Ogada, told the court that the complainant, Wooseman Owhond of Nigeria Army MBC Tungamaje Abuja, reported the matter at Zuba Police Station on May 10.
Ogada said the convict criminally trespassed into a site in Tungamaje and dishonestly made away with iron rods but in the process of escaping, the complainant caught the convict and handed him over to the police for investigation.
He stated that during police interrogation and investigation, the convict confessed to the crime and the iron rods were recovered from him.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Sections 353 and 288 of the Penal Code. (NAN)