Three security guards, Dauda Ibrahim, Musa Hussani, and Hassan Saleh, were sentenced to nine months in prison each on Monday by a Dei-Dei Grade 1 Area Court in Abuja for stealing a geepee water tank.
Three security guards from Shagari Quarters in Dei-Dei, Abuja, Hussani, 30, and Saleh, 30, entered guilty pleas to three counts of theft and criminal conspiracy but begged the judge for mercy.
However, Judge Saminu Suleiman offered the convicts a choice of a N20,000 fine per person.
Sulieman also mandated that the prisoner give the tank owner N50,000 in restitution.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Mr Chinedu Ogada, told the court that the complainant, Rabiu Bello of the same address, reported the matter at Dei-Dei Police Station on Jan. 26
Ogada said that on the same date, the convicts criminally conspired and went into a compound in Shagari Quarters, Dei-Dei, belonging to one Halima Ibrahim of Gwarinpe.
He said the convicts dishonestly trespassed into the compound and stole one geepee water storage tank, worth N200,000, and an Angle iron, valued at N200,000, and ran away but they were later caught and handed over to the Police for proper investigation.
The prosecutor said that during police investigation, the convicts made a confessional statement and the geepee water storage tank was recovered from them but all effort made to recover the angle iron proved abortive.
He said the offence contravened Sections 96 and 288 of the Penal Code. (NAN)