A Kaduna Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, sentenced a 32-year-old bricklayer, Christopher Clement, to 15 months imprisonment, for stealing building materials worth N760,000.
The Magistrate, Mr Ibrahim Emmanuel, convicted and sentenced Clement, after he had pleaded guilty to the charges brought by the police.
The court, however, gave the convict an option of N60,000 fine and ordered him to desist from crime and turn a new leaf.
The court held that the sentence was to serve as a warning to others, who were engaged in crime.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp Chidi Leo, had told the court that the defendant and others at large, committed the offence on Dec. 12, at Maraba Rido, Kaduna.
He said that the defendant and those others, had conspired to steal some PVC materials, bags of cement and blocks at a construction site within the jurisdicton.
The stolen items are valued at N760,000.
According to the prosecutor, the defendant was apprehended and handed over to the police by a security guard, while others took off
The offence contravenes the provisions of the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.
Before the courts verdict, the convict had begged for leniency and had urged the court to temper justice with mercy .