Burnt N7.3m Turkish doors: Court jails 67-year-old man for negligence

Magistrate (Mrs) A. A. Famobiwo, sitting at an Igbosere chief magistrate court in Lagos, yesterday sentenced a 67-yearold man, Gabriel Mbah, to six months imprisonment for causing fire that burnt 80 units of imported Turkish doors worth N7.3 million.

The court, however, gave the convict an option of N500,000 fine.

The prosecutor, Inspector Solomon Mawari, told the court that the defendant set a fire, which entered a warehouse and burnt the doors belonging to the complainant, Mr Ogochukwu Obiora, on January 30, 2016, at 10am at STI Market, Coker, Lagos.

At his arraignment on February 29, 2016, Mbah pleaded not guilty to the twocount charge of wilfully setting fire on a property, which was preferred against him.

However, Mrs Famobiwo found him guilty on the first count of negligently causing the fire, but discharged him on the second count of wilfully causing the fire. She said, “The evidence of the witness and that of the investigating police officer point to the fact that the defendant was the person who started the fire.

“The defendant never denied that he made a fire, but said it was not the fire he made that burnt the goods. He said that he made a fire to burn refuse after doing environmental but used water to put off the fire.

“However, there was no evidence that any other person made a fire after the defendant. Though the defendant did not set fire on the property of the complainant, he did not exercise proper care to put off the fire.

“He was, therefore, negligent and is convicted for negligently causing the fire. But he is not convicted of the second count because there was no proof that he wilfully set the fire; it was an act of negligence.”