21-year Old Jailed For Stealing Tear-gas Canister From Police Station

Grade one Area Court sitting in Dei-Dei, Abuja has sentenced one Joshua Geoffrey, 21, to Three years imprisonment for theft.

Gatekeepers News reports that Geoffrey,who is a resident of Kubwa, Abuja, was charged with criminal charm and theft.

The convict pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency, while weeping.
“I am so sorry, sir. Please, don’t send me to prison, because I don’t have any relatives here in Abuja. Please forgive me. I will not commit any offence again,” Geoffrey said.

However, Sulyman Ola, the Area Court Judge, sentenced Geoffrey without an option of fine.The convict is not a first-time offender, and had been arraigned in the court for a different offence.

The convict was warned by the Judge to be of good behaviour and desist from committing crime after serving his jail term, adding that the punishment would have been stiffer if the convict had not saved the court the rigour of lengthy prosecution.

Chinedu Ogada, The Prosecution Counsel, told the court that the convict was in custody at the Byazhin police station in connection to a case of mischief and phone theft, when the incident occurred.

Ogada said a police officer brought out the convict, and while cleaning the cell and crime office, Geoffrey used that opportunity to break cardboard boxes belonging to two police inspectors, stealing a tear-gas canister, phone, N5,000 cash, and a pistol. The items were worth N73,500.

Geoffrey was later tracked down and re-arrested by the police.And during police interrogation, he confessed to using the pistol to threaten people, alongside charms that were recovered from him.

The prosecution counsel added that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 217 and 287 of the Penal Code.