A 40-year-old security guard, Adamu Yahaya, was arraigned before a Life Camp Chief Magistrates’ Court, Abuja, on Friday for poisoning his neighbour’s goats and sheep.

The police charged Mr Yahaya with mischief, criminal intimidation, and voluntarily causing hurt without provocation.

The prosecution counsel, Charity Nwachukwu, told the court that the complainants, Kingsley Ayawa and Maywell Kanu of Tasha I Gwagwa, Abuja, reported the matter at the Karmo Police station on May 9.

Ms Nwachukwu said that the defendant threatened to kill the goats and sheep if they continued to eat the pepper he planted on his farm.

She told the court that on May 8, the defendant killed the complainant’s 20 goats and three sheep worth N2.7 million.

Ms Nwachukwu told the court that the defendant caused a wrongful loss to the complainants.

She said that when the complainants confronted the defendant, he attacked them with a cutlass and, in the process, inflicted injury on Mr Ayawa’s hand.

The prosecutor said that during police investigation the defendant made a confessional statement.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The prosecutor prayed the court to grant her a date to open her case against the defendant.

The defendant’s counsel, Lillian Ibrahim, made an oral application for the defendant’s bail citing Section 36 (5) of the 1999 constitution and Section 165 (1), 158, 162, of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.

Ms Ibrahim told the court that the parties are neighbours and bail is at the court’s discretion, asking it to grant the defendant bail in the most liberal terms.

She also submitted that the defendant would not jump bail and was on police administrative bail.

The magistrate, Musa Jobbo, admitted the defendant to bail of N500,000 with a surety in like sum.

Mr Jobbo ordered that the surety must reside within the court’s jurisdiction and produce reliable means of identification.

The magistrate adjourned the matter until July 3 for hearing.

(NAN)