Matthew Onocheta
IBADAN – A magistrate’s court in Nigeria’s southwestern city of Ibadan, on Monday, sentenced a fraudster to two weeks imprisonment for theft.
Ezekiel Onikoyi, 39, was ordered to serve two weeks imprisonment for stealing a woman’s handbag containing a phone, power bank and ₦4,000.
Onikoyi, whose address was not provided, was charged with stealing, obtaining money under false pretences and conduct likely to cause breach of peace. He pleaded guilty to the three-count charge.
The Magistrate, Miss Gladys Oladele, said that the convict was found guilty as charged and ordered to serve two weeks imprisonment at the Agodi Correctional Centre, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
Oladele, however, gave the convict the option of serving one month of community service.
She held that the power bank, one of the things the convict stole from the complainant should be returned to her (complainant).
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Samuel Owolabi told the court that the defendant committed the offences on March 14, at 11:30 p.m., at the old Toll Gate on the Ibadan- Lagos Expressway.
According to Owolabi, the convict disguised himself as a prophet, intercepted one Mrs Balikis Adeoti who was returning from work, and claimed to have a word of revelation for her before he defrauded the victim.
He reportedly instructed Adeoti to drop her bag and walk a short distance to a junction to pray and leave a ₦100 note at the spot for her problems to be solved.
Owolabi said that Adeoti dropped her bag and followed the instructions, but on returning the fake prophet and her bag had disappeared.
He said that the convict had made away with her bag containing phones and a Power bank worth ₦220,000 as well as her ₦4,000.
The prosecutor said that the power bank was later recovered from the convict, but the phone was not.
He said the offences contravened Sections 390 (9), 419 and 249 (d) of the Criminal Laws of Oyo State, 2000.
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