Panel beater bags two years for unlawful possession of firearm

• Court dissolves 10-year-old marriage for lack of love

A Jos Magistrate’s Court yesterday sentenced a 24-year-old panel beater, Bitrus Atu, to two years imprisonment for unlawful possession of a pistol and smoking of hemp.

The Magistrate, Mr Shawomi Bokkos, summarily tried and sentenced Atu after he pleaded guilty to the crime. He, however, did not give the convict an option of a fine, saying the sentence would serve as a deterrent to other would-be offenders.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Inspector Ahmed Labaran, told the court that the case was reported on July 1 at the “A” Division Police Station by a police patrol team led by ASP Audu Ameh.

The prosecutor said that the convict was also caught publicly smoking a prohibited substance suspected to be hemp. According to him, the offence is punishable under the Plateau Penal Code Law.

Meanwhile, an Upper Area Court in Kubwa, Abuja, dissolved a 10-year-old marriage between Rukaya Shuaibu and her husband, Shehu Zubair, due to a lack of love.

The Judge, Mohammed Wakili, dissolved the marriage according to Islamic law, following Shuaibu’s prayer for divorce on the ground that the marriage lacked love.

Wakili ordered Shuaibu to observe “Iddah, ” a three-month waiting period before contracting another marriage. Earlier, Shuaibu told the court that she married the respondent under Islamic law and had yet to have a child.

She said the marriage had broken down irretrievably and prayed the court to grant her request for a divorce due to lack of love. “The respondent owes me N100,000, which I want him to pay back,” she added.

Zubair asked the court to grant Shuaibu’s request, saying: “I divorced her once in June 2023. I consent to her request before the court. I borrowed the money she mentioned for a friend for a failed business, and she knows I have been pestering that friend to pay.”