A 45-year old security guard, Eno Akpan and a scrap dealer, Mustapha Ali, 20, on Wednesday appeared before an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court, Lagos, for allegedly stealing and receiving stolen property worth N800,000.
The security guard of Cantonment Barracks, Ikeja, is standing trial for conspiracy and stealing, while the scrap dealer of Gida-Kwali compound, Ojota, is charged with conspiracy and receiving stolen property.
The duo, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them.
The Prosecutor, Insp Sunday Bassey, told the court that the complainant, Mr Michael Amanna, a generator engineer of Oshodi in Lagos, “discovered that when he resumed at his workshop, a Cummins 150KV watts generator set, valued at N800,000 kept for repairs by a customer, was stolen”.
Bassey said that the complainant raised an alarm, started making some findings and got information on where to look for it.
He got to the under bridge at Gida-Kwali Ojota and saw the same generator in a shop about to be dismantled.
Bassey said the scrap dealer told the police that a customer (the security guard) approached him with one other person and told him he had a generator for sale.
He took him somewhere at Oshodi and sold the generator set to him.
The prosecutor said the defendants committed the offences on June 14 at Gida-Kwali scrap dealer association, Ojota, Lagos.
According to the prosecutor, the offences contravened sections 287(7), 328 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that section 328 stipulates 14 years imprisonment for anyone convicted of receiving stolen property.
The Magistrate, Mrs O.A. Daodu, admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N100,000 each, with two sureties each in like sum.
Daodu adjourned the case until July 20 for mention. (NAN)