Osun backs prison term for Aregbesola’s phone thief

Ighodalo

Osun State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Afolabi, has justified the 10-year imprisonment of an accused, Kelvin Ighodalo, who stole the phone of Governor Rauf Aregbesola on November 27, 2010.

Afolabi, in a statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday, accused the media of sensationalising the verdict of an Osogbo High Court on the phone theft.

Justice Oyejide Falola had on Monday found Ighodalo guilty of a six-count charge and sentenced him to a total of 45 years jail term.

The concurrency of the sentencing implies that Ighodalo would serve only 10 years in prison.

Afolabi said many newspapers had reported that the court sentenced Ighodalo to 45 years imprisonment even as the concurrency of the term was not reflected in some of the stories.

He insisted that the stories should reflect the 10-year jail term pronounced by the judge.

Afolabi said, “To say that Ighodalo was sentenced to 45 years prison term for stealing Aregbesola’s phone is not only misleading but unduly sensationalising, unfair to the court and the criminal justice system.

“The learned judge while sentencing Ighodalo exercised his discretion within the limited space allowed by law to sentence him to 10 years term on each of the first three counts instead of 20 years and five years each on the last three counts instead of seven or 14 years.

“This, the court must do with the accused having pleaded guilty and having accepted the facts presented by the prosecution. He is, however, to spend 10 years as the court has pronounced that the prison terms are to run concurrently.”




-- Punch