3 Telecom Cable Vandals Jailed 36 Months

Three men accused of vandalizing the moribund public telecom firm, Nitel cable worth N3 million were Wednesday sentenced to 12 months prison terms each by Jos Magistrate court.

Malam Mustapha Hassan, presiding Magistrate convicted the trio of Elom Ifeanyi, 26, Yakubu Magaji, 35 and Ernest Sylvester, 30 on a two-count charge of ‘conspiracy and vandalism.’

The Trial Judge however, gave the convicts an option of N7,000 fine each. While delivering the judgment, Hassan said that the prosecutor had convinced the court beyond reasonable doubt that the convicts committed the offence. 

“The evidences provided by the prosecution against the accused persons also assisted the court to convict them. The court also relied heavily on the confessional statements made by the accused persons to convict them,'' said Justice Hassan.

He said that the court had invoked Section 157 (1) of the Criminal Code Procedure that stipulated quick judgment for anybody that pleaded guilty to his or her offence, to convict the accused.

Gokwat Ibrahim, prosecutor told the court that the accused persons had, on December 17, 2012, at about 1:30 am, vandalised Nitel cables in Jos Township.

Ibrahim told the court that the accused were arrested by soldiers attached to the Special Task Force (STF), while committing the offence around Post Office area of Jos, Plateau state.

“When the accused were arrested by the soldiers and a search was conducted on them, the cables, hacksaw and pliers were found in their possession. When interrogated by the soldiers, they failed to give satisfactory explanation of how they came about the cables that belonged to Nitel,” said Ibrahim.

The prosecutor said that the accused had, therefore, committed an offence contrary to Sections 97 (1) and 95 of the Penal Code. Ibrahim tendered the cables, hacksaw and pliers as exhibits before the court. When the charges were read to the accused, they all pleaded guilty and begged the court for leniency, saying that they were first offenders.

Last September, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek  and the Association of Liscensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (Alton), hosted a public workshop on protection of telecom infrastratructure.

The workshop aims to sensitise the public, government and security agencies on the need to accord telecom infrastructure as ‘critical national infrastructure’ following increased cases of vandalisation of equipment and killing of workers in the sector.