Labourer arraigned for belonging to a gang of thieves

A 23-year-old labourer, Emma Nuhu, on Monday appeared before a Gwagwalada Magistrates’ Court for allegedly belonging to a gang of thieves.

The police charged Nuhu, a resident of Gosa Angwan Tiv, Airport Road, Abuja, with three counts bordering on criminal trespass, attempt to commit an offence and belonging to a gang of thieves.

The prosecution counsel, Dabo Yakubu, told the court that the complainant, Isaac Paul, reported the matter at Iddo Police Station on September 23.

Yakubu said the complainant while on patrol with another vigilante group at Gosa kpai-kpai Abuja, sited 10 men breaking the padlock of a transformer with the intent to vandalise the transformer.

He said the group pursued them and caught the defendant while others are now at large.

He said during the police investigation, the defendant could not give a satisfactory account of himself, adding that the defendant was known at Iddo police station as a habitual criminal.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provision of sections 348, 95 and 306 of the Penal Code.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Magistrate Oladunmoye Olatunji admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N300,000 with one surety in like sum.

Olatunji ordered that the surety must reside within the court’s jurisdiction and must have a verifiable address.

He adjourned the case until October 6 for hearing.