Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has condemned the three-year imprisonment of a 28-year-old auto mechanic, Akeem Jimoh, convicted for stealing yam worth N35,000 in Osun State.
Akeem was convicted and sentenced on Wednesday by an Osogbo Chief Magistrate Court after pleading guilty to the one-count charge of theft pressed against him.
Asked why he committed the act, Jimoh told the court that he stole the 17 tubers of yam due to hunger, and pleaded for leniency.
The presiding Magistrate, Muibah Olatunji, sentenced Jimoh to three years in prison with hard labour and without any option of fine.
Commenting on the jail term, Falana, in a statement made exclusively to Saturday PUNCH, said the sentencing policy in the country needed to be reviewed to make it more humane.
He queried why scarce public funds should be wasted on the upkeep of convicts jailed for petty offences like that of Jimoh.
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.”
