Senior Magistrate Muhammad Munir also sentenced the accused to 30 months imprisonment each for stealing air conditioners, mattresses, with an option of fine.
A Gwagwalada Senior Magistrates’ Court has sentenced Rebecca Danjuma, and Andrew Magdem to 12 strokes of cane each for stealing nine split AC units, and three orthopaedic mattresses from a hotel.
The police charged Ms Danjuma, Mr Magdem and Lamba Ayuba with criminal trespass, joint act and theft.
While Ms Danjuma and Mr Magdem pleaded guilty, Mr Ayuba pleaded not guilty.
Senior Magistrate Muhammad Munir in his judgment, also sentenced Ms Danjuma and Mr Magdem to 30 months imprisonment each, with an option of fine.
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“On count one they are sentenced to six months imprisonment or an option of N50,000 fine, while on count two the defendants are sentenced to two years imprisonment or an option of N150,000 fine.
“On count three the defendants are sentenced to 12 strokes of cane each for stealing air conditioners.
“The convicts are to pay a compensation of N1.315, 500 million each to the complainant,” he ruled.
Mr Munir admitted the third defendant to bail in the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum which must reside within the court’s jurisdiction.
He adjourned the case until March 3 for hearing.
The defendants were given 12 strokes of cane each outside the court premises at the presence of onlookers.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel Dabo Yakubu, told the court that the complainant, Ofor Ikechukwu of Dera international hotel Kuje, Abuja, reported the matter at the police station on January 19.
He said that the convicts also stole two ceiling fans and eight units of bed-side fridge all valued at N2.7 million.
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Judicial corporal punishment (JCP) is the infliction of corporal punishment as a result of a sentence by a court of law. The punishments include caning, bastinado, birching, whipping, or strapping. The practice was once commonplace in many countries, but over time it has been abolished in most countries, although still remaining a form of legal punishment in some countries including a number of former British colonies and Muslim-majority states.
Singapore’s use of caning as a form of JCP became much discussed around the world in 1994 when a United States citizen, Michael Fay, was caned for vandalism. Two of Singapore’s neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Brunei, also use judicial caning.
Other former British colonies with judicial caning currently on their statute books include Barbados, Botswana, Brunei, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe.
Many Muslim-majority territories, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran, northern Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen, and Indonesia’s Aceh Province, employ judicial whipping or caning for a range of offences. In April 2020, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court abolished flogging from the country’s legal system, though other forms of judicial corporal punishment, including amputation for theft, remain legal in Saudi Arabia.
(NAN)