A Kano State High Court, on Friday, sentenced a 27-year-old man, Abdullahi Lawan, to seven years imprisonment for sexually abusing three teenage boys.
Lawan, of Rangaza Damagari area in Ungogo Local Government, Kano State, was convicted on a three-count charge of sexual abuse after he pleaded guilty to the charges.
Delivering judgment, Justice Aisha Mahmoud, sentenced the convict to seven years imprisonment on each of the three-count charges preferred against him by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), Kano Command.
Mahmoud held that the prosecution had proven his case beyond reasonable doubt.
She sentenced the convict to seven years imprisonment each without the option of a fine.
The judge also ordered him to pay a fine of N1 million and, if he failed to pay the said N1 million, he would serve additional two years in prison.
“The sentence shall run concurrently,” the judge said.
The Prosecutor and Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, in Kano, Abdullahi Babale, said the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kano Command, reported the matter to the agency on Sept.25.
He said that the convict committed the offence sometime in August 2024, at his shop situated at Rangaza Damagari.
“The convict procured gifts for the victims between the ages of 10 and 13-year-old boys at his shop when they went to rent a small truck.
“In the process, he gave them N300, groundnut and sexually exploited them,” Babale said.
The prosecution presented four exhibits, including the confessional statement of the convict, and the victim's testimony to the court, to prove his case.
Babale said the offence contravened the provisions of Section 16(1) of the Trafficking in Persons(Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 and was punishable under Section 26(1) of the TIP ACT 2015.
The defence counsel, I. I Umar, pleaded for leniency on behalf of Lawan.