The Zuba Upper Area Court on Thursday sentenced a 37-year-old trader, Masiru Sadiq, to 10 years’ imprisonment for sodomising a nine-year-old boy.

Mr Sadiq was convicted and sentenced after pleading guilty to sodomy. He begged the court for forgiveness and mercy.

The judge, Mohammed Sani, said the convict was not a first offender and refused to give him an option of a fine. He also ordered the convict to pay N50,000 as a fine to court after serving his jail terms or serve two years imprisonment in place of the fine.

The judge said the punishment would serve as a deterrent to others and warned the convict to be a good citizen and of good behaviour and desist from committing crimes after serving his jail term.

He added that the punishment would have been stiffer if the convict had not saved the court from the rigour of protracted prosecution.

Prosecution counsel Chinedu Ogada told the court that on January 7 at about 9:00 p.m., a community vigilante group in Zuba arrested and brought the convict to Zuba Police Station on the same day a nine-year-old boy reported the matter to the community vigilante group.

Mr Ogada told the court that during police investigation and interrogation, the convict admitted committing the crime.

(NAN)