By Percy Dabang
James Titus, a suspect involved in the theft of an armored cable at Traffic Substation (S/S) in Numan Adamawa State, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment without the option of a fine.
The verdict was delivered by Her Worship, Magistrate Safri Samuel of the Chief Magistrate Court Numan following a swift legal process led by the legal team representing the Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC).
A statement signed and made available to newsmen in Yola, by Blessing Tunoh, Communications officer of the company states that “the theft occurred at about 13:00 hours on August 24th, when Titus vandalized the Traffic transformer cable. He was later apprehended along Jalingo Road while burning the cables to extract the wires for sale. Titus intended to sell the extracted wires to a metal scavenger.”
It added that “the scavenger identified as Mai Bawa, who was set to purchase the stolen wires is currently at large. The vandalized transformer supplies electricity to the market and GRA areas of Numan Local Government. Both areas have been without power since the incident causing significant disruption to businesses and residential usage.”
In addition to his prison sentence, Titus was ordered to pay the sum of N100,000 as damages to the complainant, YEDC, and N10,000 to cover the cost of litigation. These payments are to be made through the court registry as per the judge’s directive.