Man jailed 45 years for stealing Governor's phone

For stealing a N50,000 Sony Ericsson phone belonging to
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a 31-year-old Kelvin Ighodalo has
been sentenced to 45-year imprisonment by an Osogbo High
Court.
Ighodalo stole the phone from the pocket of Aregbesola on
November 27, 2010, when the governor was being
inaugurated at Government Technical College, Osogbo.
Justice Oyejide Falola, who heard the case, found Ighodalo
guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing and
fraud.
He was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment for the first three
counts and five years for each of the last three which
included impersonation, obtaining property by falsehood and
collusion.
Falola, who ruled that Ighodalo deserved the jail term, held
that the convict used the phone to obtain N500, 000 from the
Owa of Ilesa, Oba Adekunle Aromolaran, while he obtained
N200, 000 from Mr Shengen Rahman, an associate of the
governor.
The jail term, which Falola pronounced will run
concurrently, means that Ighodalo will spend the next 10
years behind bars.
Assistant principal state counsel, Mr Biodun Badiora, told the
court that the convict had served six-year imprisonment in
Ikoyi prison custody in connection with a murder case in
2005.
Counsel to Ighodalo, Mr. Ameachi Ngwu, prayed the court to
commit him to community service, stressing that the convict
should not be incarcerated but rather be placed where people
could see him as a convict.