Ekiti man jailed 21 years for stealing foodstuffs

An Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, has sentenced one Jimoh Dele to 21 years imprisonment for offences bordering on felony, breaking and stealing.

According to the charge, the defendant, on May 11, 2020, around Mobil Petrol Station, Water Works, Ajilosun Area of Ado Ekiti, broke into a building and committed felony and “as well a shop belonging to Oluwayemisi Adeleye and carted away goods and food stuffs worth over N234,000.”

The Prosecutor, Kunle Adeyemo, said the offences were “contrary to sections 413 and 390(9) of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012”.

In her statement to the police, the complainant said, “My shop was burgled twice, in May, 2020 and June, 2021 during which my foodstuffs and soup ingredients such as rice, semovita, wheat and tomato paste, among others, which I was selling, were stolen”.

A police officer, Sergeant Oladele Ayodeji, in his testimony before the court, said, “The defendant on 19th November, 2021 was arrested in connection with cases of kidnapping, murder, unlawful possession of firearm, burglary and stealing.

“During interrogation, the defendant confessed to have involved and participated in criminal activities such as kidnapping, burglary and stealing, including breaking into the shop of the complainant located at Ajilosun, Water works Area of Ado Ekiti”.

The prosecutor, Adeyemo, called two witnesses and tendered statements of the complainant and the defendant as exhibits, while the defendant spoke in his own defence through his counsel, Tope Salami, and called no witness.

In the judgment, Justice Olalekan Olatawura, who found the defendant guilty as charged in counts 1 and 2, sentenced the defendant to 14 years on count 1 and seven years on count 2, ruling, “The sentences are to run concurrently.”