A Lugbe Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Thursday sentenced two teenagers, Abdulrahman Abubakar and Yunusa Umar, to nine months imprisonment each for stealing a police officer's cell phone.
Abubakar and Umar, both aged 18, labourers and residents of Aya, Abuja, had pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing and begged for leniency.
The judge, Mr Aliyu Kagarko, however, gave each of the teenagers the option of a N30,000 fine and warned them to desist from crime.
Kagarko also ordered the teenagers to pay N 7,000 as compensation to the owner of the phone.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Mr Stanley Nwaforaku, told the court that the complainant, Sgt. Sidi Ibrahim, arrested the teenagers and took them to the Asokoro Police Station on December 28, 2023.
Nwaforaku said that, on the same date, at 7:30 pm, the teenagers and one other person at large stole the phone.
The prosecutor said that during police interrogation, the teenagers could not give a satisfactory account of themselves.
He said that the offences contravened sections 79 and 287 of the Penal Code.
