Five workers of the Snno Hydro Power Project in Zungeru Hydro Power in Niger State are to share a total of six years and ten Months in correctional facility after they were convicted and sentenced by a Minna Chief Magistrate court number one.
Also, the court convicted two persons for conspiring among themselves to vandalize an armored cable from the power house of the Zungeru Hydro Power Dam.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Hajiya Ummulkhatum Mohammed while passing her sentence, said the sentence of three others is without option of fine while one of them is with Fifty Thousand Naira fine option.
The convicts are Haliru Garba, a security attached to the Zungeru Hydro Power Dam. Olore Joshua a welder with SnnoHydro Power project, Musa Magaji and Yusuf Anas.
Hajiya Ummulkhatum Mohammed convicted them after they all pleaded guilty to the three count charges brought against them by the men of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligent Department (SCIID) of the Niger State Police Command.
The four convicts were arraigned in court on charge sheet marked MN/ 12/90/2023 which bothered on criminal conspiracy, theft, mischief in relation to electricity.
According to the Police Prosecutor, Ahmed Saidu, the three count charges contravened Section 97, 287 and 334 of the penal code law.
The charge sheet which was made available in court and obtained by this reporter read in part:
“on the 5th of October, 2023, the Chief Security Officer of (CSO), SnnoHydro Power Project,Company Zungeru SP Galadima Bello, (rtd), reported to the police, that on the 20th September, 2023 a piece of armoured cable attached to the Generator House of the company valued at N8,816,000 was stolen away.
“And they believed that it was stolen by you Olaore Joshua who is a welder at SnnoHydro Power Project Company and Haliru Garba who is a Security man at the company.
“Police dectetives swung into action and during police investigation both of you confessed that you conspired among yourselves and stole the said armoured cable and sold at the rate of N145,000 and shared the proceeds among yourselves.
“You Olaore Joshua benefited N90,000, while you Haliru Musa benefitted N55,000 sold to one Usman Abba Barade B.Shehu and Musa (sure name unknown) all at large.
“You Magaji Musa assisted them to transport the said cable inside the company premises to Sabon Gungu Village and was paid N11,000 and you knew that it was a stolen property”.
When the charges were read to them by the Presiding Chief Magistrate, they all pleaded guilty to the three count charges and the police Prosecutor prayed the court to invoke section 190 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of Niger state (ACJA), and convict them summarily.
She then convicted and sentenced them to a total of Six years and ten m weonths to be shared among themselves and ordered them to pay the sums of N8,816,000 as compensation to the nominal complainant.
