16-year-old boy flogged in public for stealing

A 16–year-old boy was publicly given 12 strokes of the cane on Tuesday on the orders of an Abuja Senior Magistrates' Court which found him guilty of theft, News Agency of Nigeria reports.

The Senior Magistrate, Aliyu Shafa, ordered the police to cane the convict in public after he pleaded guilty to stealing 17 pieces of scaffold clips valued at N150,000.

Shafa directed that the police should hand him over to the traditional ruler of Abaji, where he came from because he was still a minor.

He added that the ruler should make arrangements to meet with the boy's parents and hand him over to them because he confessed that his parents did not know his whereabouts since he left home.

Earlier, the police prosecutor, Mr. Abdullahi Alhassan, had told the court that Mr Kunle Adebayo, of suite B 19, AdemolaAdetokunbo Valley Mall, Wuse II, Abuja, reported the case to the Mabushi police Station.

Alhassan said the convict went to Adebayo's building's site at Jabi II, Abuja, and stole 17 pieces of scaffold clips valued N150,000.

He said during investigation, the scaffold clips were recovered from the convict's at Mpape area.

The prosecutor said the offence contravened the provision of Section 287 of Penal Code.

Section 287 stipulates that "whoever commits theft shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, which may extend to five years or with fine or with both."

The convict pleaded guilty saying, "My lord, forgive me. I will not do that again and I am ready to go back home."