Bus driver bags 10 strokes of cane for causing road obstruction

A Kaduna Chief Magistrates’ Court on Thursday sentenced a 28-year-old bus driver, Okoro Chijioke to 10 strokes of the cane for causing obstruction.

The magistrate, Ibrahim Emmanuel, handed down the judgment after Chijioke pleaded guilty to the charge of road obstruction.

Emmanuel said that the court recognised that the convict was a young man and a first offender that deserved the mercy of the court.

“In order to serve as a deterrent to other offenders of like minds, the offender must not go unpunished.”

The magistrate thereby sentenced the convict and ordered that his vehicle be returned to him by the police.

Earlier, the Police Prosecutor, Insp. Chidi Leo, had told the court that Chijioke was brought to the Gabasawa Police Station on March 28 by Insp. Barnabas Ezekiel.

Leo said that the convict, a driver of a bus with registration number XL 914 UWL, drove his car along Kano Road by Ahmadu Bello Way, Kaduna, on the same day.

He said that the convict while driving the bus, obstructed traffic and refused to listen to the officer in charge when asked to park well before he was arrested.

The prosecutor said that the offence contravened Section 39(3) of the Road Traffic Act.