A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osogbo, capital of Osun State, on Wednesday sentenced a 28-year-old ex-convict, Jimoh Akeem, to three years imprisonment for stealing yam.

Magistrate M. A. Olatunji jettisoned appeals for leniency made by the convict and declared that the court would not entertain option of fine for him.

Akeem stole 17 tubers of yam.

The police prosecutor, Corporal Oluokun Babatunde, informed the court that the tubers of yam stolen were worth Thirty-Five Thousand Naira, and that they belonged to one Tiamiyu Abegunde.

Babatunde disclosed that the convict had just finished serving a three-year sentence on a previous charge before embarking on the latest theft.

The prosecutor added that Akeem was caught stealing the tubers of yam at around 10pm on Sunday night, July 27, 2025.

The charge read, “That you, Jimoh Akeem ‘M’, on the 27th July, 2025, at about 10:00pm at the back of Africa Primary School, Ataoja Area, Osogbo, in the Osogbo Magisterial District, did steal 17 tubers of yam valued the sum of #35,000.00 (Thirty-Five Thousand Naira only), property of one Tiamiyu Abegunde ‘M’, and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 390 (9) of Criminal Code Cap 34 Vol. 11 Law of Osun State of Nigeria 2003.”

Akeem pleaded guilty to the one-count charge slammed against him, but repeatedly appealed to the court to temper justice with mercy.

The convict blamed hunger for his crime.

Jimoh revealed he was once a mechanic, but he had to close his shop when his landlord sent him packing.

He claimed unemployment and hunger were what prompted him to steal the yams, begging that the court release him since they were already retrieved.

But Magistrate Olatunji sentenced him to three years imprisonment without the option of fine.