A Dutse Grade 1 Area Court, Abuja, on Wednesday sentenced one Abubakar Baba-Adam to eight months imprisonment for assaulting a female hotel worker and threatening a police investigation officer.
The Presiding Officer, Mr. Suleiman Mohammed, however, gave him an option to pay a fine of N30, 000.
He advised the convict against repeating any criminal act, adding that the sentence should serve as a deterrent to others who might want to commit a similar offence.
The convict, a resident of Tudun-Fulani, Bwari, was arraigned by the police for criminal trespass, criminal force, assault, criminal intimidation and giving false information to mislead a public servant. He pleaded guilty to the charge.
Earlier, the Prosecutor, Mrs. Idowu Ojo, told the court that the suspect was reported at the Bwari Police Station on Sept. 8 by one Happiness Akaa of Positive Mirror Hotel, Sabon-Gari, Bwari. Ojo said that on Sept.7, at 10.00 p.m., the convict trespassed into her room in the hotel and forcefully tried to have sex with her.
“When she refused, he grabbed her by her hair and neck and tried to strangle her. She screamed and the manager and other workers of the hotel asked him to open the door, but he refused. They eventually forced open the door and rescued her; after apprehending the convict, he threatened to return and deal with all the workers at the hotel after the matter ended at the police station,” she said.
Ojo said that during the investigation, the convict also lied to the police that he misplaced his phone at the hotel, while also threatening to deal with the police investigating officer after the case was over.