Kuje Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday sentenced Miss Ogbu Maryam, 23, to 12 months in prison for sneaking handsets into Kuje Prisons.
Magistrate Okeagwu Azubike, while delivering judgement, said Maryam was arraigned on a four-count charge of criminal trespass, abetment, attempt to commit an offence and possession of stolen property.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Cpl. Ocheche Samuel, told the court that ASP Usman Abdulahi, attached to Medium Security Prison, Kuje, arrested and brought the convict to the Kuje Police Station on March 4, at about 3.30p.m.
According to him, Maryam went to Kuje prison in pretence to visit her brother, Victor Ogbu, who is in prison awaiting trial of culpable homicide.
She brought her brother some fruits and Indomie and when she was searched by the officers on duty, six new Nokia handsets and four MTN SIM-cards were concealed beneath the cooked Indomie.
Samuel said when Maryam was interrogated, she could not give satisfactory account of the said six new Nokia phones.
He said the offence contravened Sections 342, 84, 95 and 319A of the penal code.
When the charges were read before the court, counsel to the convict, Barrister Ecto Okanya, pleaded for leniency, saying that “this is the first time the client has committed the offence.”
