A Sharia Court in Minna on Thursday sentenced a labourer, Samiu Abdulrahim, to seven months imprisonment for assaulting a police officer on duty.
Abdulrahim of fixed address was arraigned on a two-count charge of assaulting a police officer and criminal intimidation, contrary to Sections 265 and 397 of the penal code.
The accused pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency.
The Judge, Ahmed Bima, in his judgement, sentenced the convict to two months in prison with option of N5,000 fine for the first charge, and five months imprisonment or a fine of N10, 000 for the second charge.
The Police Prosecutor, Insp. Cletus Ibrahim had informed the court that one Sgt. Mustapha Abdullahi, attached to a Sharia Court in Kpakungu, reported the matter at the police station on May 29.
Ibrahim told the court that the officer had gone to arrest the accused for contempt of court when he grabbed him by the neck and threatened him.
The prosecutor, thereafter, urged the court to try him summarily in line with Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Counsel for the accused person, Abubakar Danladi, urged the court to temper judgment with mercy given that his client did not waste the time of the court as he saved it the stress of rigorous trial.
Danladi also drew the court’s attention to the fact that the accused was a first time offender. (NAN)
