A Gwagwalada Magistrates’ Court in Abuja sentenced two lovers, Mohammed Nazifi, 30, and Bilkisu Ibrahim, 25, to three months in prison each for committing adultery.
The police charged the couple with a one-count indictment of adultery, to which they both pleaded guilty.
Nazifi appealed to the court for leniency, stating that he is a married man with young children to care for.
Ibrahim also requested mercy, explaining that she has a three-year-old child and an elderly mother who depend on her.
Magistrate Olatunji Oladunmoye had previously remanded the defendants until they could provide a witness to attest to their good character. When they failed to do so, he proceeded to sentence them.
Oladunmoye sentenced both lovers to three months in prison, with an option to pay a fine of N25,000 each.
The magistrate emphasized that the purpose of the punishment was not to ruin the convicts but to reform them, adding that it would also serve as a deterrent to anyone considering similar actions.
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 offence contravened the provisions of sections 387 and 388 of the Penal Code.
According to him, section 387 and 388 refers to a man or a woman subject to customary law where extra-marital sexual intercourse is recognised as a criminal offence.
“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.
