A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Mapo, Ibadan, has handed down a five-year jail term to an ex-convict, David Dapo, after finding him guilty of stealing electrical wires.
The gavel came down on Thursday as the presiding Magistrate, Mrs O.O. Latunji, ruled that Dapo’s own guilty plea, coupled with the evidence presented by the prosecution, left no room for doubt.
Latunji noted that once the defendant openly admitted the offence, there was no need to flog a dead horse with further proof.
“Therefore, Dapo is sentenced to five years imprisonment for count one, five years imprisonment for count two and two years imprisonment for count three respectively.
“However, sentencing shall run concurrently,” Latunji held.
Earlier in the proceedings, the prosecutor, Insp. Oluseye Akinola narrated how the offence was carried out on Jan. 4 at about 8.00 p.m. at Agara, along Akala Expressway in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to Akinola, Dapo confessed that he scaled the fence of a residential building and forced his way into a two-bedroom apartment that was temporarily unoccupied.
Once inside, the prosecutor said, the convict went to work like a man on a mission—damaging the electric metre and switches before stripping the apartment bare of its electrical wiring.
Akinola further told the court that after cutting the cables into pieces and neatly packing them, Dapo, confident he had beaten the system, decided to sleep overnight in the apartment.
But the long arm of the law, he said, caught up with him when the landlord’s wife arrived to inspect the flat and discovered an intruder inside.
The woman promptly alerted her husband, Mr Akintola Akinjide, who arrived at the scene with police officers and arrested Dapo.
The prosecutor added that the convict had only recently regained his freedom, having been released on Dec. 1, 2025, after serving a seven-and-a-half-year jail term at Agodi for a similar offence.
Akinola said the offences violated Sections 509, 412 and 390 (9) of the Criminal Code, Cap 38 Vol. II, Laws of Oyo State, 2000.
