A Karmo Grade 1 Area Court in Abuja, on Friday sentenced a 27-year-old trader, Bashir Yusuf, to three months in prison for cheating farmer of nine bags of ginger, worth N108,000.
The judge, Alhaji Inuwa Maiwada, sentenced Yusuf after he pleaded guilty to criminal breach of trust and cheating and begged for leniency.
The Judge, however gave the convict an option to a fine of N5, 000.
He also ordered the convict to pay N72, 000 as compensation to the complainant and warned him to desist from crimes.
Maiwada said that the punishment would have been stiffer if the convict had not saved the court the rigor of protracted prosecution.
The Prosecutor, Mrs Ijeoma Ukagha, had earlier told the court that on April 2, a Emmanuel Ujor of house 15 F.O Ogbu Street Kado Estate Abuja, reported the matter at Utako Police Station.
Ijeoma said that on March 30, the complainant supplied Yusuf with nine bags of ginger valued at N108,000 to sell and remit the money within two weeks.
She said Yusuf collected the bags of ginger sold them and deliberately refused to give him the money and dishonestly converted it to his personal use.
The prosecutor added that during police investigations Yusuf made a confessional statement.
Ijeoma told the court that all efforts made to recover the money from Yusuf, failed.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 312 and 322 of the Penal Code. (NAN)
