Shoplifting: Court orders man to pay N200 to plaintiff

A Grade 1 Area Court in Karu , Abuja , has ordered one Friday Ovoke , 34, to pay N200 as compensation to Ocheme Jennifer , a complainant in a case of theft.

The court gave the order after convicting Ovoke for the offences of cheating and theft, contrary to sections 348 and 287 of the Penal code.

Judge, Hassan Ishaq, also ordered that the items recovered from the convict be released to the nominal complainant.

While sentencing the accused to three months imprisonment for the charges, the court gave him an option of N8, 000 fines.

Ishaq said that the N200 compensation should be paid through the court.

Earlier, the Senior State Prosecutor, Mahmud Ismail, had informed the court that the convict was reported to Karu Police station by Jennifer on April 11.

He stated that Ovoke had gone to the shop of the complainant located at Gbegyi, Abuja, pretending to be a customer and had asked her to supply him 100 pieces of electrical change over.

Ismail said while the complainant was in the process of packaging the items, the convict stole a bag from the shop containing N10, 100 worth of recharge cards and cash of N2,500.

According to the prosecutor, the complainant discovered that Ovoke had stolen the items few minutes after he had left her shop.

He added that the complainant traced the convict to CBN junction, Karu, Abuja, where he alerted policemen nearby who arrested him.

The prosecutor told the court that apart from the N200 which the defendant confessed to the police to have spent from the stolen money, other items were recovered from him.

The defendant had pleaded guilty when his plea was taken.

( NAN )