A 32-year-old labourer, Sulaimon Odedele, is to spend the next 18 months in prison for stealing a N1.2 million vehicle, an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos ruled on Wednesday.
The Magistrate, O.J. Awope, pronounced the verdict after he pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of unlawful entering and stealing.
Awope sentenced Odedele to six months in prison for unlawful entering and one year for stealing, but ordered that the sentences should run concurrently.
The magistrate, who sentenced Odedele without an option of fine, said the convict should serve the sentences with hard labour.
She said: “You are hereby sentenced to 18 months in prison with hard labour and without an option of fine.
“The sentence would serve as a deterrent to others who might want to engage in similar acts.”
Earlier, the prosecutor, ASP Ezekiel Ayorinde, had told the court that the accused committed the offences on November 25 at Alaja, Ayobo in Lagos.
Ayorinde said the accused, a resident of Ota in Ogun State, absconded with his company’s vehicle, valued at N1.2 million, property of Olarenwaju Ayeni.
Ayorinde said the complainant employed the accused in his block-making industry as a loader of blocks on November 21 and he absconded with his vehicle four days later.
“The accused stole his employer’s vehicle four days after being employed,” he said.
The prosecutor said one of the complainant’s friends who saw the accused driving the vehicle out of the premises at 8:30pm, called him to know if he was the one that sent him out.
Ayorinde said: “The complainant received a call by one of his friends that he sighted one of his labourers driving out his vehicle.
“The complainant rushed to his office and discovered that his vehicle was nowhere to be found.
“The complainant reported the case at a police station and the accused was later arrested at Ilaro in Ogun, but had already sold some vital parts of the vehicle.”
The offence contravened Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
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