By OLAWALE AKINREMI

A Grade ?A? Customary Court, Mapo, Ibadan, on Tuesday sentenced one Kamilu Olona to eight months imprisonment for stealing items belonging to his father?s tenants.

The court?s President, Mrs O.E. Owoseni, convicted and sentenced Olona after pleading guilty to the four-count charge, bordering on conspiracy and stealing, brought against him.

Owoseni held that a situation in which an accused person pleads guilty in the courtroom to an offence no longer requires further proof.

She, consequently, sentenced Olona to six months imprisonment for counts one and three, with an option of six months of community service, each for the offences of conspiracy.

For the offence of stealing, she sentenced the convict to eight months imprisonment, with an option of eight months of community service, each for counts two and four.

Owoseni stated that the sentences shall run concurrently.

The prosecuting counsel, Insp Ayodele Ayeni, had earlier told the court that the convict committed the crime on Feb. 11, at Bodija Market, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Ayeni said that Olona had repeatedly stolen from his late father?s tenants whenever they were not around.

According to the prosecutor, some of the tenants, who could no longer bear the rate at which their things were getting stolen, alerted the police.

He said that luck, however, ran out on Olona when he was eventually apprehended with some of the tenants? kitchen utensils, such as pots, plates, spoons and lots more.

Ayeni tendered the stolen items before the court as exhibits.

He noted that the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 516 and 390 (9) of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Vol. II, Law of Oyo State 2000.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the convict, having confessed in court, said that he drifted into stealing habit after his father?s death some years ago.

?My father sent me to study in the United Kingdom, but as soon as he died, I could no longer finance my education and had to return to Nigeria.

?Subsequently, I could no longer afford anything and started stealing from my father?s tenants,? Olona said. (NAN)

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