Photo: Court Sentences Man To 45 Years Imprisonment For Stealing Governor’s N50,000 Phone

A 31-year old ex-policeman, Kelvin Ighodalo has been sentenced to 45-year imprisonment by an Osogbo High Court for stealing a N50,000 Sony Ericsson phone belonging to Governor Rauf Aregbesola. Mr Ighodalo had stolen the phone from the Governors pocket on November 27, 2010, when he was being inaugurated at Government Technical College, Osogbo.
Justice Oyejide Falola, who precided over the case, found the accused guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing and fraud. Justice Falola thereafter sentenced Mr Ighodalo to 10-year imprisonment for the first three counts and five years for each of the last three which included impersonation, obtaining property by falsehood and collusion.

The Judge explained that the convict deserved the sentence and held that the convict used the phone to obtain N500, 000 from the Owa of Ilesa, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, while he obtained N200, 000 from Shengen Rahman, an associate of the governor.

Mr Ighodalo will run the jail term concurrently and so will only spend a total of 10 years in prison. During the hearing, the assistant principal state counsel, Biodun Badiora, also disclosed that the convict had served six-year imprisonment in Ikoyi prison custody in connection with a murder case in 2005.

Do you think it's a fair judgement?