Man Bags 25yrs In Jail For Stealing Student’s Laptops, Mobile Phones At Gunpoint
Justice Raliatu Adebiyi of the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja Friday convicted and sentenced a 25-year-old cobbler, Joseph Jericho to 25-years in prison for stealing at gunpoint two laptops and three mobile phones from a student.
Justice Adebiyi handed down the verdict after she found the convict, who resides at 14, Church Street Ilaje, Ebute Meta, Lagos guilty of a two-count charge of conspiracy and armed robbery, brought against him by the Lagos State government.
The prosecutor, Mrs O. Ahmed-Muili had told the court during trial that Jericho committed the offences alongside others who are now at large on June 26, 2011 at No. 4, Baale St., Ilaje, Ebute Meta, Lagos.
The lawyer had also claimed that the convict and his accomplices while allegedly armed with guns and cutlasses, robbed one Ifesinachi Ogodo, a student, of his two laptops, three mobile phones and N5,000.
According to Ahmed-Muili, the offences were contrary to sections 402 (2)(a) and 403 of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos 2003.
But the counsel to the defendant, S.A Aigoro in his allocutus had appealed to the court to temper justice with mercy.
He said, “The defendant has been in prison custody since 2011, I pray that this court has mercy on him.”
Justice Raliatu Adebiyi, while sentencing convict noted that the prosecution had proved its case against him beyond reasonable doubt.
She held, “The defendant is hereby sentenced to 25-years in prison each for the offences of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
“The sentence shall run concurrently and shall begin from the period of his remand,” Adebiyi said.
