Lovers bag three months jail term in Abuja over adultery

A Gwagwalada Magistrates’ Court in Abuja has sentenced two lovers, Mohammed Nazifi, 30, and Bilkisu Ibrahim, 25, to three months in prison for committing adultery.  

The couple was charged with a one-count offense of adultery, to which they both pleaded guilty.

During the proceedings, Nazifi appealed to the court for leniency, citing his responsibilities as a married man with young children. Ibrahim also pleaded for mercy, mentioning her 3-year-old child and elderly mother who depend on her.

Magistrate Olatunji Oladunmoye, who had previously ordered the convicts to provide character witnesses, sentenced them to three months’ imprisonment after they failed to present any. However, the court offered an option for a 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 who wanted to toe the same path.

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, sections 387 and 388 refer 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.