For stealing a N50,000 Sony Ericsson
phone belonging to Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a 31-year-old Kelvin
Ighodalo has been sentenced to 45-year imprisonment by an Osogbo High
Court.
Ighodalo stole the phone from the pocket
of Aregbesola on November 27, 2010, when the governor was being
inaugurated at Government Technical College, Osogbo.
Justice Oyejide Falola, who heard the case, found Ighodalo guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing and fraud.
He was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment
for the first three counts and five years for each of the last three
which included impersonation, obtaining property by falsehood and
collusion.
Falola, who ruled that Ighodalo deserved
the jail term, held that the convict used the phone to obtain N500, 000
from the Owa of Ilesa, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, while he obtained N200,
000 from Mr Shengen Rahman, an associate of the governor.
The jail term, which Falola pronounced will run concurrently, means that Ighodalo will spend the next 10 years behind bars.
Assistant principal state counsel, Mr
Biodun Badiora, told the court that the convict had served six-year
imprisonment in Ikoyi prison custody in connection with a murder case in
2005.
Counsel to Ighodalo, Mr. Ameachi Ngwu,
prayed the court to commit him to community service, stressing that the
convict should not be incarcerated but rather be placed where people
could see him as a convict.
