Gbenga Akinola, a middle-aged farmer in Bolorunduro, Ondo East Local Government Area of Ondo State, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for armed robbery.

Mr Akinola was jailed on Wednesday by the State High Court sitting in Akure.

The accused was found guilty of a five-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony to wit armed robbery and armed robbery, among other offences.

According to the court, Mr Akinola and one other currently at large, committed the offence in August 2021 in the Itanla area of Ondo town.

The two men robbed one Onuh Chidinma of her itel phone valued at N20,000 and the sum of N150,000 in her bag.

The accused also dispossessed one Rhoda Rufus and Ayodeji Yemisi of their small Tecno phone, valued at N6,500, Tecno K-7 phone valued at N35,000 and the sum of N4,500; a bag, an itel phone valued at N4,500 and the sum of N2,800.

They were said to have committed the offence while armed with cutlasses and other dangerous weapons.

Alako Abdulahi, police prosecutor in the case, who testified against Mr Akinola, told the court that men of Amotekun Corps brought the defendant to the police station on October 19, 2021, with four mobile phones, a motorcycle, a bag and a small purse recovered from him.

Mr Abdulahi said that the accused confessed that the items were found on him but that a man called Sunday Igbo handed them over to him.

One of the victims, Rufus Rhoda, also testified that she and Chidinma were going to the Mount Olive prayer centre when the accused came out of the bush, masked with a cap and armed with a cutlass.

According to her, the accused asked them to drop their bags and all the contents, after which he carried the bags and ran into the bush.

She revealed that her bag contained Tecno 7, another small Tecno and the sum of N4,500.

The accused, however, told the court that he bought a motorcycle from Sunday Igbo, but he did not know that it was stolen.

In his judgement, Justice Williams Olamide discharged the accused on some of the counts since there was no evidence to link the cutlass found in his house with the robbery offence.

Mr Olamide, however, sentenced Mr Akinola to seven years imprisonment for conspiracy and 21 years for robbery.

He added that the jail term would run concurrently.