Court Sentences Man To 12 Strokes Of The Cane For Stealing Fowl In Minna

A Minna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday sentenced one Abubakar Abdullahi to 12 strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to a charge of stealing a fowl. Magistrate Hassan Mohammed gave the accused an option of N5,000 fine. The police prosecutor, Sgt. Gunduma Ibrahim, had told the court that police men on patrol at Mobile Roundabout, Minna, arrested the convict with a fowl suspected to be stolen on Nov. 2. Ibrahim said the convict could not give a satisfactory account of how he got the animal, valued at N1,500. He said the offence was contrary to the Penal Code of Niger. When the charge was read to the convict, he pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency. The prosecutor had urged the court to try him summarily in line the Criminal Procedure Code, based on his plea