Ex-convict gets 10 strokes of cane, 6 months imprisonment for stealing

A Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday ordered that an ex-convict, Ezekiel Francis, 28, be given 10 strokes of the cane for stealing N20,000.

The Magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, gave the order after Francis pleaded guilty to the charge and begged the court for leniency.

Delivering judgment, the magistrate said from the court’s records, the convict had previously been convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment for theft in 2022.

Emmanuel also sentenced Francis to six months in prison without an option of fine, and warned him to desist from committing crimes and be of good behaviour henceforth.

He stressed that the court will not be lenient to him again.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Inspector Chidi Leo, told the court that the convict committed the offence in the Karji area of Kaduna on Jan. 5.

According to Leo, the defendant and one other at large, stole N20,000 from the house of one Caleb Vincent.

He said the convict was apprehended while his accomplice escaped.

Leo noted that the offence contravened Section 217 of the Penal Code of Kaduna State, 2017.