Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights lawyer Femi Falana has denounced the three-year imprisonment of Akeem Jimoh, a 28-year-old auto mechanic convicted of stealing N35,000 worth of yam in Osun State.
Akeem was convicted and punished on Wednesday by an Osogbo Chief Magistrate Court after pleading guilty to the one-count stealing charge filed against him.
When asked why he committed the offense, Jimoh told the court that he took the 17 tubers of yam out of hunger and prayed for leniency.
The sitting magistrate, Muibah Olatunji, condemned Jimoh to three years in prison with hard labor and no possibility of a fine.
Falana commented on the jail term, saying that the country’s sentencing policy needs to be changed to be more humanitarian.
He questioned why limited public monies should be spent on the upkeep of offenders imprisoned for minor offenses such as Jimoh’s.
He said, “It is high time that the sentencing policy of the country was made humane. Why should the government be made to waste scarce public funds on the feeding, accommodation, and medical care for the convict who was jailed for stealing tubers of yam worth N35,000?
“The attention of judges and magistrates ought to be drawn to the fact that judicial officers in capitalist countries have stated that it is no longer a crime for the poor to steal food to feed themselves and their family members.
“Meanwhile, we have briefed a lawyer to file an appeal against the conviction and the three-year jail term of Akeem Jimoh.”
