A Grade I Area Court in Dutse, Abuja on Thursday sentenced an 18-year-old scavenger, Nura Ibrahim,, to three months imprisonment for stealing 23 sheets of aluminium roofing sheets, worth N11,500.
The Presiding Officer, Mr Suleiman Mohammed, sentenced Ibrahim after he pleaded guilty to trespass and theft.
Mohammed, however, gave the convict an option to pay a fine of N5, 000.
The presiding officer held that the convict failed to give the court a reasonable explanation why he committed the crime.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Mr Tunde Arowolo told the court that a distress call was received at the Bwari Police station on Feb. 19, by an anonymous informant that the convict stole the sheets from a block of four flats on Evans Timothy Street, Bwari, FCT.
Arowolo said that the flour flats were empty as a result of a fire that gutted the flats on Feb. 10.
When the police got there, he said, the convict was arrested on the site with 23 pieces of aluminium sheets.
The prosecution said the offence contravened the provisions of sections 287 and 342 of the Penal Code Law.