The Akure Division of the Ondo State Magistrates’ Court has sentenced a 22-year-old man, Emmanuel Godfrey, to 18 months’ imprisonment for stealing 35 tubers of yam.
Godfrey, who pleaded guilty, confessed that he committed the crime out of hunger.
According to the charge sheet, the theft occurred on August 29, 2025, at Awogbamigbe, Oba-Ile, in Akure North Local Government Area, where Godfrey uprooted the yams from a farm belonging to one Sunday Chinedu.
Prosecutor T.O. Gbadebo of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) told the court that the offence was reported to the Corps on September 2.
He disclosed that the convict had stolen from the same farm on two previous occasions but was pardoned by the community.
The charge read in part: “That you, Emmanuel Godfrey, on August 29, 2025, at Awogbamigbe, Oba-Ile, Akure North Local Government Area, did commit felony by entering a farm belonging to Sunday Chinedu to steal 35 tubers of yam, which you uprooted from the ground.”
Gbadebo noted that the offence contravenes Sections 383(1) and (2) of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol 1, Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria, 2006.
Magistrate Damilola Sekoni, after taking his plea, convicted Godfrey and sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment with hard labour, without the option of a fine.
