A 21-year-old labourer, Suleiman Isa, on Thursday got 12 strokes of the cane for stealing 14 pieces of iron frames worth N 98,000
The police charged Suleiman of no fixed address, with trespass and theft.
Delivering judgment, Gambo Garuba, an Upper Area Court judge in Zuba, Abuja, sentenced Isa as he pleaded guilty to the charge and begged the court for leniency.
Garuba charged the convict to desist from committing crime.
Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Chinedu Ogada told the court that the convict criminally went into Dantata Estate, Gwarinpa Abuja, being a construction site without the consent of the management.
Ogada said the convict went into plot 645 and stole 14 pieces of iron frame valued N98,000 but he was apprehended by the guards, in the process of escaping with the stolen frames.
Ogada further stated that during police investigation, the convict made a confessional statement and the 14 pieces of stolen iron frames were recovered from him.
The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of section 288 of the Penal Code.