Man Charged For Stealing Mobile Phone At Petrol Station

The on-going fuel scarcity across the nation has been greeted with so much disgust as many spend hours at the petrol station all to no avail in most cases.

The queues at petrol station have been a menace to the society as traffic is left to play a pivotal role in the citizens’ everyday life.

To this regard, many are left frustrated at petrol stations after hours of patiently waiting to get fuel and as such, take their frustrations on others.

This was recently witnessed as twenty-seven-year-old Okechukwu Nweze, was on Monday arraigned before a Senior Magistrates court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, for allegedly stealing a mobile worth N10, 000.

Nweze was said to have been reported at Wuse Zone 3 Police Station by one Adamu Alhassan of OAU Quarters, Daily post reports.

Things will get messier as it was gathered that the prosecutor, Umar Ango, while testifying in court said the Nweze stole an iTel mobile phone belonging to the plaintiff while he queued up to buy fuel at the NNPC petrol station in Wuse II, Abuja.

According to the prosecutor, the phone was recovered from the accused during police investigation.

Ango further stated that the offenses contravened the provisions of Sections 79 and 287 of the Penal Code, hence the accused must be reprimanded.

When the charge was read, the accused pleaded not guilty to the crime.

However, Senior Magistrate, Mrs Binta Dogonyaro, consequently granted Nweze bail in the sum of N20,000, with two sureties who must be living within the court’s jurisdiction but adjourned the case till June 10 for hearing.

Nigeria has been hit with a large number of crime cases in recent times. Of the 11 types of crime identified globally, seven are very prominent in Nigeria.  These are predatory crime, that which does harm to another and benefits only the offender; occupational crime, committed by a person in the process of his occupation which utilises his occupational skills; service crime, which encourages the purchase of illicit or illegal goods and services; organised crime, which has an administrative structure; companionate crime, which involves accomplices; and episodic crime, a type of crime with low probability of repetition by the same person.