Two car battery thieves were yesterday sentenced to one year imprisonment each by an Abuja Magistrate Court.

The accused persons, Ifeanyi Ozochekwe, 21, and Kingsley Francis, 20, all of no fixed address were arrested on January 21, 2009.

Prosecutor Francis Tanko, who stood in for Abdullahi Adamu, told the court that one Alhaji Nasidi Adamu reported to the police that the accused persons forced his car open and stole his car battery, valued at N12,000.

He said the offence ran contrary to sections 79 and 287 of the Penal Code Law of Northern Nigeria.

According to him, during police investigation, the accused persons gave a confessional statement admitting that they actually stole the battery.

When the charges were read to the accused persons, they pleaded guilty and begged for forgiveness.

One of the accused, Kingsley Francis, who claimed to be an SSS 3 student of a secondary school at Keffi, said the other accused person brought the battery to him to sell, adding that he did not participate in its stealing.

"I returned the battery to him when I could not find a buyer but when we were arrested, Ifeanyi denied stealing it and accused me of stealing the battery," he explained.

After the confessions, the prosecutor requested for summary trial and told the court that both accused persons have no past criminal records with the police.

Magistrate O. Oyewumi convicted the accused persons on the two count charges and sentenced them to one year imprisonment each without option of fine.

"I want the two of you to go and spend some months in prison, so that you can learn the lessons of your lives and by the time you come back, I expect that you both would have become transformed as I will personally monitor your activities in prison, just to make sure that you change for the better," the magistrate ruled.

In another case, a pastor yesterday appeared before an Abuja magistrate for his inability to produce an accused that he stood as surety for.

The accused, Pastor Marvellous was said to have surety two accused persons, Uche Ugbebo and Kingsley Shoroko that allegedly defrauded one Onyeachi Nkiru of N96, 000.

Prosecutor Abdullahi Adamu told the court that the accused signed police bail bonds for both accused persons and was only able to produce one.

The accused admitted before the magistrate that the signature on the police bail bond was his own but said he did not understand its content before signing it.

The pastor appealed to the magistrate to release him on bail, adding that the period he spent in detention worsened his health condition.

"The other day I vomited blood on the way to prison and will not like to be remanded again so that I can treat myself with local herbs, because I am a native doctor," he stated.

Magistrate Bashir Alkali granted him bail with a surety that must be a civil servant of not below level 7 and adjourned the case to February 9, 2009 for ruling.