An Upper Area Court, sitting in Ilorin, on Wednesday ordered the remand of two men, Jacob Peter and Baba Ochi, accused of stealing 450 chickens.

The prosecutor, Insp. Iwaloye AbdulRauf, told the court that on June 4, one Yusuf Samuel of Lasoju village, Ilorin, reported that Peter was caught stealing chickens from his farm.

AbdulRauf said that members of the local vigilantes in the village caught the accused with some chickens and handed him over to the Police.

He said that the accused had stolen a total of 450 layers from the farm, worth N1.5 million.

The prosecutor said the accused had pleaded guilty during interrogation and mentioned one Baba Ochi, as his alleged accomplice.

When their plea was taken, Peter pleaded guilty while Ochi denied committing the offence.

Peter told the court that he had lost count of the number of chickens he had stolen, but said he remembered stealing up to 25 live chickens and many dead ones.

According to him, most of the dead chickens were cooked and eaten by himself and Ochi every night.

Ochi who pleaded not guilty, said he had never followed Peter to steal from the farm, but agreed that he had eaten the stolen chickens.

The Judge, Moshood Ajibade, remanded Peter in prison custody and granted Ochi bail in the sum of N500,000, with two sureties in like sum.

Ajibade said that the sureties must reside within the jurisdiction of the court.

The judge said Ochi would remain in custody until he met the bail condition.

The case was adjourned to July 5, for further mention.

(NAN)