A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State capital, has sentenced a 28-year-old artisan to four years imprisonment for theft.
The convict, Tobi Babatunde, a welder, was arraigned on three-count charge of burglary and theft by the police over theft of a poultry feed mill engine valued at N1,300,000.
According to the police prosecutor, Nelson Akintimehin, Babatunde committed the crime between June 2024 and July 2025 at a poultry farm located at Mopol Barracks area of Owode in Akure North Local Government Area of the state.
The prosecutor informed the court that Babatunde unlawfully entered the poultry farm owned by Veronica Titus and stole two electric motors from the poultry feed mill with each of the valued at N650,000.
Following the rejection of his plea by the court, Akintimehin prayed that Babatunde should be sentenced in order to serve as a deterrent to others.
With the offences violating sections 423 and 390 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ondo State, 2006, Magistrate O. Omotosho convicted the defendant and sentenced him to two years for the first count, with an option of a N200,000 fine and one year each for the second and the third counts with N50,000 fines each.
Magistrate Omotosho, who stated that “after reviewing the evidence presented by the prosecution, including the defendant’s confession, the court found him guilty,” ultimately sentenced Babatunde to a total of four years in prison across all counts, with the sentences to run concurrently.
