Yam Theft: Kafanchan Court Serves Justice to 'Tuber Thief' with a Nine-Month Sentence

Yam Theft: Kafanchan Court Serves Justice to 'Tuber Thief' with a Nine-Month Sentence

 In what could be dubbed the most comical courtroom drama of the year, a Kafanchan Magistrates’ Court in Kaduna State handed a 40-year-old man, Cletus Gandu, a nine-month vacation behind bars for the audacious crime of stealing two tubers of yam.

Gandu, in his defense, admitted to the “heinous” crime, pleading that hunger drove him to the yam-lifting fiasco. He begged for mercy, perhaps hoping for a free meal instead of a prison sentence.

Magistrate Michael Bawa, with a straight face that could rival a poker champion, sentenced Gandu to three months for criminal trespass and nine months for the “grand theft” of two yams. In a surprising twist, Bawa threw in an N50,000 fine option, possibly offering Gandu a get-out-of-jail-not-so-free card.

The yam drama began when the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) charged Gandu with criminal trespass and theft, in violation of sections 327 and 270 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law. The court heard that the complainant, Alice Daniel, had rushed to the NSCDC’s Kafanchan office on July 15, raising the alarm about the vanishing yams from her farm in Zonkwa.

According to the NSCDC prosecutor, Mr. Marcus Audu, the yam thief had struck on two separate occasions, apparently developing a taste for Daniel's produce. During the investigation, Gandu confessed to his yam-pirating ways, sealing his fate in this bizarre caper.