A High Court sitting in Nigerian state of Nasarawa has sentenced a 29-year-old man, Gwom Ali, an indigene of Plateau State, to 13 years imprisonment for armed robbery.
Ali was arrested by officers of the Nigeria Police Force after a robbery attack in Gunki-Marmara, on Keffi road in the Nasarawa LGA. He has been in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service since November 2020.
The defendant was charged with two counts of armed robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The prosecuting counsel, Rabiu Adagba, who tendered the confessional statement of the defendant through the Investigating Police Officer, said the defendant had confessed to robbing the victim, one Hassan Ahmed, who is an Okada rider, at gunpoint and carted away the sum of N130 only and the motorcycle of the victim.
After the close of the prosecution case, the defence counsel, L. A. Bina of the Legal Aid Counsel, did not adduce any evidence in defence of the case against her client.
Bina said she rested her case on the case of the prosecution, thereafter the parties addressed the court with their final written addresses to close the case.
The Judge of the Nasarawa High Court, Justice Sunday Bawa, who relied on the evidence of the IPO and the confessional statement of the defendant, concluded that the prosecution had proved offences of armed robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm against the defendant, under robbery and firearms Act (Special Provision) Act, Laws of Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Justice Bawa convicted the defendant, Ali, and sentenced him to serve 13 years imprisonment for armed robbery and one year for unlawful possession of a firearm.
The two sentences, according to the Judge, are to run concurrently.
