By Deborah Nnamdi
A Gwagwalada Magistrates’ Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday sentenced two lovers, Mohammed Nazifi, 30, and Bilkisu Ibrahim, 25, to three months imprisonment each for adultery.
The police charged the lovers with a one-count charge of adultery by man and woman, to which they pleaded guilty.
Nazifi pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy, saying he was a married man with little children to take care of.
Ibrahim also begged the court for mercy, saying she had a 3-year-old child and an aged mother, who depended on her.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Dabo Yakubu, told the court that the complainant, Mr Dayabe Abdullahi of Chibiri village, Kuje, Abuja, reported the matter at the Area Command, Gwagwalada, Abuja on Jan. 16.
Yakubu said that the convicts conspired and had sexual intercourse, and both confessed to the crime in their statements.
He said that the offense contravened the provisions of sections 387 and 388 of the Penal Code.
According to him, sections 387 and 388 refer to a man or a woman subject to customary law where extra-marital sexual intercourse is recognized as a criminal offense.
“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,” he said.
The Magistrate, Olatunji Oladunmoye, had previously remanded the convicts 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 sentenced the lovers to 3 months imprisonment each with an option of N25,000 fine each.
The magistrate said the essence of the punishment was not to ruin or destroy the convicts but to reform them.
He added that it would also serve as a deterrent to anyone who wanted to toe the same path.
