The Chief Magistrate Court 2 sitting in the Adamawa State capital, Yola, has sentenced 15 gangsters known in local parlance as Shila Boys to between one and five years imprisonment for various offences.
The court passed its verdict after the youths were tried and found guilty of offences ranging from extortion, receiving of stolen property, thuggery, criminal conspiracy and causing grievous hurt.
The court, presided over by Magistrate Abbas Adamu, sentenced the convicts after they were charged before him by a prosecuting police officer, ASP Iliya Akawu, on behalf of the Commissioner of Police.
Magistrate Adamu sentenced Umar Abubakar and Sadam Yakubu to five years in prison.
Umar Abubakar’s sentence comes with an option of N120,000 fine while that of Sadam Yakubu has provision for N150,000 option of fine.
Both were convicted for receiving stolen property.
The magistrate also jailed Abdulrahaman Tasiu for two years, Abdulazeez Mohammed, three years; Aliyu Bala, two years; John Josiah, two years; Rabiu Adamu, three years and Anas Adamu, two years.
All the six are to serve their sentences without option of fine.
Four others, namely Osama Adamu, jailed for three years; Haruna Musa, for three years; Mujahid Saidu, for three years, and Abdulrahaman Usman, for two years were given option of fine amounting to N150,000.
Aliyu Umar was jailed two years or N150,000 fine; Abdullahi Isa, two years or option of N50,000 fine; Shettima Mohammed, two years or N200,000 option of fine.
DAILY POST reports that Shila Boy gangsterism, typically perpetuated by youngsters mostly in their teens or early 20s, is a rampant phenomenon in Adamawa State, mostly around the state capital, Yola and its environs, and sometimes in other urban towns such as Mubi and Numan.
The gangsters find much attraction in GSM phones, which they either discreetly remove from residents’ pockets or bags, or forcefully snatch by deploying light weapons, mostly pocket knife, as objects of coercion
