A man who had been sentenced to two years’ jail term will now have to serve nine years as punishment for attempting to flee after the judge pronounced the sentence.
According to reports, 31-year-old Mallam Zakaria, an indigene of Pariya village in the Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State, was earlier charged with deserting one Maryam Usman, of Anguwan Yungur, whom he impregnated in Adamawa state.
Maryam Usman lodged a complaint on June 16, 2021, at the Divisional Police Headquarters in Girei that Zakaria impregnated her and started avoiding her and also stopped taking her calls after she broke the news to him, reports say.
The complainant accused Zakaria of conspiring with the operator of a pharmacy, Sunday Assoga to abort the pregnancy.
She added that the chemist administered abortion pills to her but they failed to terminate the fetus.
Mallam Zakaria was arrested and put before the court on June 18, 2021, to answer for the offence.
Magistrate Adamu Abdulrazak convicted and sentenced the defendant to two years’ imprisonment on July 2 with an option of a fine of N150,000, reports say.
However, interestingly, the convict fled by scaling the court fence after seeking permission to urinate.
The prosecutor and other security personnel chased him up and caught him with the assistance of pedestrians and bystanders.
His attempted escape angered the chief magistrate who recalled his case file and invoked Section 138 of the state penal code law to jail him for seven years separate from the earlier two-year sentence.
With the updated jail term of nine years, Mallam Zakaria has no option of a fine; he will spend it all in prison.
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