On Wednesday, a Kaduna chief magistrates’ court ordered that 24-year-old Friday Simon be given 10 strokes of the cane and 15 months’ imprisonment for stealing a generator.

Magistrate Ibrahim Emmanuel sentenced Mr Simon after pleading guilty to two counts of housebreaking and theft.

Mr Emmanuel sentenced him without an option of a fine.

”The facts presented to the court by the prosecution showed that the convict is an unrepentant criminal who does not deserve mercy. The court records also revealed that he had previously been convicted and sentenced to eight months imprisonment for phone theft in 2019,” said the magistrate.

He added, “The convict has shown the court that he is not ready to change, and since the sinner must not go unpunished, the sentence would serve as a deterrent to other would-be offenders.”

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Chidi Leo, said Dauda Barry, a vigilante member in Barnawa, reported the matter at the police station on March 30.

Mr Leo said Mr Barry caught the defendant with a Honda generating set worth N230,000 in a wheelbarrow while on routine patrol within the area.

After interrogating the defendant, he said he confessed that he stole the generator from his neighbour’s house.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened sections 243 and 271 of the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.

(NAN)