AISHA ABUBAKAR
A 30-year old married man, Mohammed Nazifi, and married woman, Mrs. Bilkisu Ibrahim, 25, have been sentenced to three months imprisonment each for engaging in secret sex outside their marriages in FCT, Abuja.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the lovers were found guilty of adultery before the Gwagwalada Magistrate Court, Abuja, on one-count charge of adultery, to which they pleaded guilty.
The man, Nazifi, pleaded with the Court to temper justice with mercy, saying he was a married man with children to take care of. At the same time, Mrs. Ibrahim also begged the Court for mercy, saying she had a 3 year old child and an aged mother, who depended on her.
The Presiding Magistrate, Olatunji Oladunmoye, had previously remanded the convicts in order for them to provide a witness that would vouch for their conduct of good character. He finally sentenced them when they could not provide any.
Oladunmoye sentenced the lovers to 3 months imprisonment each with an option of N25,000 fine each. The Magistrate said the essence of the punishment was not to ruin or destroy the convicts, but to reform them. He added that it would also serve as a deterrent to anyone that may want to toe the same path.
During the hearing, 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 16th January,2025.
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 referred 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.
However, the Court was lenient to them by not giving them maximum sentence for the offence of the adultery under the penal code.