The Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson, DSP Bala Elkana, has revealed the punishment that will be meted to whoever buys a stolen phone in Lagos.

While enlighten Nigerians on the consequences of buying a stolen phone, Bala said the minimum sentencing for offenders is 7 years and the buyer will get more jail years than the thief.

According to him,

“Under our laws, it is quite a serious offence for one to buy stolen phones. The law even regards the buyer to be more culpable than even the thief. The punishment is more for the buyer than the thief. The wisdom behind that is to discourage people from stealing because if there is no market where they would sell those stolen things, they would not steal them but because they have a ready market, they easily steal.

“This is why the law makes the punishment stiffer for the buyer. The person who steals may get three years punishment, while the buyer could get seven years imprisonment and at the end, he will lose the property once we trace it to him. For a person to avoid buying stolen property, it is advisable that he buys things in the open market and not on the street or people who are just passing and not dealing in such wares.”

Explaining how a case of purchasing stolen phones can be checked, Elkana said:

“The most important thing when we charge a buyer to court is to look at whether he has knowledge that that thing he bought was a stolen property. How do we test the knowledge? What is the market value and how much did he buy it? If the market value is N100 and you buy it N10, automatically, you will know that you are buying a stolen property.

Secondly, we would check where he bought it. Was it in a regular market where such items are sold or he just bought it on the road from somebody?

“That is enough for him to know that he is not buying something that is genuine. Thirdly, we would check the time of the day that he bought the phone. These are important things we look at when we are investigating to check whether the person has knowledge that the phone was stolen or not.”

https://lailasnews.com/lagos-police-reveals-punishment-for-buying-stolen-phone/

Don't try it

Issokay


Check my signature for your data

Bullshit

Like minds would always agree.... A thief and a buyer of stolen items are inseparable criminals.. QED

Hahahaha

Policemen are the ones encouraging those guys stealing phones in Computer Village

Cool

Always hated 2nd hand phones not to talk of stolen ones

And what would be the punishment for a police man caught collecting egunje on the street?

Awon werey police.


Me kuku no dey buy used phone self.

Abeg they should catch the buyer of my v30 fone the painful tin na the buyer no go buy am pass 10k very annoying ..zero tolerance to thieves,pick pockets and their sympathisers


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People really need to be careful when buying things at very ridiculous prices.

Some awuf fit invite trouble o

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How can one identify a stolen phone?

Nonsense, so police has become court of law, every animal will spew trash

This one is just mad. Would they write "stolen" on the phone?

Check my signature

Nice one

At least it will discourage or prevent people from buying fufu or bimbo soap home to make calls/check Nairaland

Why bother buying used phones, in 2019? Just buy a brand new pocket friendly Umidigi device......

... I hate this country each passing day... You jail a phone thief for 7 yrs and grant bail and Amnesty to Militants, bokoharam treasury looters all of una dey mad

police should tell us, useless animals in uniform

mistyebby:
How can one identify a stolen phone?

Abeg how does the time of buying something indicate that it was a stolen item?

Then we will start buying phones stolen from abroad. I will see how UK or US police will come to my village and arrest me for buying stolen phone.

Haha

Na police dey sentence person now?

Rubbish! what are the purnishment for looting while in public office? like Nigerian politicians

Good dev

Stupid police and stupid government

Punishment for buying stolen phone ,okay that's fine

But no punishment for your officers harassing innocent citizens and doing day light robbery

May God punish all of you idiottttttsssssss

Bunch of hypocrites

Any some people thinks Nigeria will get better