23-year-old Arraigned for Stealing

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
An Oredo Magistrate Court in Benin City on Tuesday arraigned a 23-year-old man for allegedly stealing items worth N196,000.

The items stolen belong to the son of the state Comptroller of Prisons, Osagie Osayande.
The accused, who was identified as Osaro Ayewah, was arraigned on two counts bothering on breaking and stealing.

Ayewah was said to have committed the offence at about 10a.m. on May 5, 2017, when he broke into Osayande’s residence at Ogumweuyi Street within Aruogba community, in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State.

The police prosecutor, Ojo Thomas, told the court that the offences were punishable under Section 411(2) and 390(9) of the Criminal Code Cap 48, Vol. II, Laws of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria, 1976, as applicable in Edo.
The accused pleaded guilty when the charges were read to him.

However, his counsel, Emmanuel Usoh, objected to the plea and asked for an adjournment to enable him prove his case.
It was gathered that the 23-year-old bus driver was said to have forced his way into the apartment through one of the windows, after scaling through the perimeter fence when his victims were away on a social engagement.

It was gathered that Ayewah made away with several valuable items, including one plasma TV valued at N150,000, jewellery worth N140,000 and a satellite decoder valued at N6,000.

Luck was said to have ran out on him when he was sighted by a resident in the area as he returned to the apartment two days later after a successful first mission.

The wife of the victim, Mrs. Imelda Osayande, told journalists that Ayewah also made away with some of her clothes, which he wore on the day he was arrested by some members of a local vigilante in the area, following a distress call.

Osayande, who is also a journalist with the News Agency of Nigeria, said: “He (accused) said he sold the plasma TV for N12,000. He was asked who the owner of the clothes was and he admitted that he took them from my house.
”He wore my shirt on the day he was caught; he wore my jeans, belt and shirt.”

However, the presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Isi Iyoha, ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody and adjourned the case till May, 15 to enable counsel to the accused to prove his case.