Scale of justice

For stealing a cell phone valued at N6,000, a labourer was on Monday sentenced to “carry two buckets filled with water up and down a staircase 100 times,’’ by an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrates’ Court, Lagos,

The labourer, Chikwandu Alo, 28, was sentenced by Chief Magistrate B.O. Ope-Agbe as he admitted committing the offence.

She said that the convict would learn his lessons after he serve out his sentence.

“I order that the convict should fill up two buckets with water and carry them up and down a stair case a 100 times,’’ she said.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Jimah Iseghede, had told the court that the accused stole the cell phone from a van.

“The complainant saw him and raised an alarm and the accused was apprehended,’’ he said

The offence contravened Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.