of his actions and has fully cooperated with the prosecution and this Honourable Court. In penance also, the Accused has taken steps to start repayment of the amounts to the Petitioner. His employers have been deducting the sum of N40,000 from his salary monthly. The Accused is also a family man with three kids of tender age and a loving wife who are dependent on him. The children in particular will require parental guidance and support in their formative years. The accused is also a public servant in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and that is his only means of livelihood which he uses to cater for his family and dependants. It is human to err but divine to forgive. It is within my lords powers to take a liberal view of the sentencing and fine the Accused accordingly. Ndubueze: We don’t have any evidence of previous conviction. We also want to confirm that the Accused has already taken steps to repay the amount obtained from the Petitioner. We also want to state that the Accused has shown remorse and taken responsibility for his actions. We urge the court to sentence him on liberal terms. SENTENCE I have carefully considered the plea for mitigated sentence as brilliantly articulated by learned counsel to the Accused Person above. I have similarly carefully considered the response of learned counsel to the Prosecution. It is of interest to note that the prosecution has been impressed by the penitent disposition of the Accused from the commencement of the investigation and therefore are similarly on the same page with the counsel to the Accused that the count shows leniency towards the Accused Person on the issue of sentencing. Let me state at the outset that I am enthused by the submissions on both sides of the aisle. In considering these submissions, I am obviously to be guided by the clear provisions of the law which provides the punishment for the offence charge. The punishment under Section 322 of the Penal 3

Select target paragraph3