Court sentences driver to 2 months in prison for beating female passenger

NAN-H-67
Sentence
By Ugochi Ugochukwu
Abuja, May 10, 2017 (NAN) A Karmo Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Thursday, sentenced a 30-year-old driver, Jonah Ben, to two months in prison for inflicting injury on a female passenger.

The judge, Mr Abubakar Sadiq, however, gave Ben an option to pay N5,000 as fine.

Sadiq said the punishment would have been stiffer if Ben had not saved the court the pains of protracted prosecution.

He also ordered the convict to pay N10,000 as restitution to the complainant.

Ben, who resides at Jabi Dakibiyu, Abuja, was sentenced on a two-count charge of causing hurt and theft.

The prosecutor, Dalhatu Zannah, told the court that the matter was lodged at Utako Police Station, Abuja, by Joy Benson of Utako village on May 4.

Zannah said that on the same date at about 4 a.m, Benson boarded Ben’s minicab from Park Palace Hotel, Abuja, to Utako village at the rate of N300.

He told the court that the complainant paid Ben N500 and requested for her N200 balance but he refused to give her.

Zannah said that when Benson insisted, the convict started beating her and she sustained injury on her left eye.

The prosecutor said that in the process, the convict stole the complainant’s Samsung Note 3 and Nokia Torch phones, which value were unknown.

He added that all efforts to recover the stolen phones proved abortive, noting
that the offences contravened sections 246 and 287 of the Penal Code. (NAN)
UGO/ORO/HA
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Edited by Razak Owolabi/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu