By Chris Uche
A Gwagwalada Magistrates’ Court in Abuja has sentenced two lovers, Mohammed Nazifi, 30, and Bilkisu Ibrahim, 25, to three months imprisonment each after convicting them of adultery.
The police had charged the lovers with a one-count charge of adultery.
They had pleaded guilty to the charge when it was read before them in court.
The prosecutor, Dabo Yakubu, had told the court that the complainant, Dayabe Abdullahi of Chibiri village, Kuje, Abuja, reported the matter at the Area Command, Gwagwalada, Abuja on Jan. 16th.
Yakubu told the court that the convicts had conspired and had sexual intercourse when they were caught in the act.
He added both of them confessed to the crime in their statements.
The police had told the court during their trial that the offence contravened the provisions of sections 387 and 388 of the Penal Code.
Sections 387 and 388 refer to a man or a woman, subject to customary law, where extra-marital affair is recognised as a criminal offence.
“If the man or woman has sexual intercourse with anyone other than his spouse, he/she is guilty of adultery and shall be punished with imprisonment for a term.
“The term may extend to two years or with fine or with both,” the provisions say.
When the charge was read out, Nazifi pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, saying he was a married man with little children to take care of.
Similarly, Ibrahim also begged the court for mercy, saying she had a 3-year-old child and an aged mother, who depended on her.
The Magistrate, Olatunji Oladunmoye, had previously remanded the convicts in order for them to provide a witness that would vouch for their conduct of good character.
He finally sentenced them when they could not provide any.
Oladunmoye, however, gave them an option of N25,000 fine each.
