On Wednesday, an area court in Jos sentenced Japhet Shualka, 27, a security guard and two others to 10 years’ imprisonment each for stealing iron rods from a construction site.

Mr Shualka is charged alongside Elisa Yakman and Sunday Ayuba.

The judge, Thomas Ajitse, sentenced the convicts after they pleaded guilty to theft and begged the court for leniency.

The judge, however, gave the convicts an option of a N50,000 fine each or five years’ imprisonment for criminal breach of trust and theft and asked them to pay N37,500 each as compensation or another five years’ imprisonment in default.

The prosecutor, Insp Daniel Namuwa, told the court that on February 2, a police patrol team of the Anglo Jos police station, during a routine patrol, intercepted a pick-up vehicle with registration number BUU 975 TQ with 20 pieces of 12MM iron rods worth N100,000.

He said the convicts could not give valid evidence of how they came about the rods. The prosecutor said the convicts confessed to the crime during a further investigation.

(NAN)