A Magistrates’ Court in Kaduna, on Wednesday, ordered that a trader, Jibrin Yusuf, 34, be given 10 strokes of cane for beating his friend over a N3,000 debt.

The magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, imposed the penalty after Mr Yusuf pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy and assault.

Mr Emmanuel held that the court would be lenient with the convict because he did not waste the court’s time with his admission of guilt.

The magistrate admonished the convict to desist from such acts, as the court would not take it lightly with him next time.

M also ordered Mr Yusuf to pay the complainant, Abubakar Haruna, N230,000 as restitution.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Chidi Leo, had told the court that on February 16, Mr Haruna, who lives in the same compound with the convict, reported the matter at the Gabasawa Police Station.

Mr Leo said the complainant, who had at some time in the past borrowed the money from his neighbour, was quietly in his room on the fateful day when the convict came and demanded his money. Mr Haruna could not produce it, and this led to an altercation between the two.

Mr Leo said that the convict later mobilised four boys, now at large, who trespassed into the complainant’s room, beat him up, destroyed his property worth N50,000, and stole his brother’s phone valued at N180,000.

The prosecutor said that the offences contravened the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.

(NAN)