A retired Assistant Inspector General of police was recently in the news having been found in the possession of a stolen vehicle. Although he claimed to have purchased the vehicle from a market auction, thereby having acquired a good root of title to the sport utility vehicle (SUV), he also claims to have no idea that the vehicle was stolen before it was auctioned.
Readers should take note that buying a stolen item even at the auction is a criminal offence punishable with prison terms in Nigeria. There are a lot of cases with similar facts where the courts have convicted persons simply because they received or bought a stolen item. Some of these convicts are ignorant of the fact that the goods they bought or received were stolen but as we say in law; “ignorantia numquam excusat ante legem” (ignorance is never an excuse before the law).
In October 2022, three friends were arraigned before the Grade I Area Court, Kado in Abuja for allegedly buying stolen goods. They were subsequently convicted by the court for criminal conspiracy and for receiving stolen property. Also, back in 2011, An Area Court in Jos sentenced two traders, Imirana Samaila and Mohammed Sani to three years imprisonment for buying stolen motor spare parts.
This offence of receiving stolen goods contravenes the provisions of Sections 97 and 317 of the Penal Code (which is applicable in Northern Nigeria) and Section 427 of the Criminal Code Act (which is applicable in Southern Nigeria).
Section 427 of the Criminal Code act states that “any individual who obtains any property through any act establishing a felony or misdemeanor, or through whatever act performed outside of Nigeria that would have constituted a felony or misdemeanor if done in Nigeria would have constituted a felony or misdemeanor, and which is an offence under the laws in force in the place where it was done, knowing the same to have been so obtained, is guilty of a felony”. This statute places the punishment of seven years jail term to life imprisonment for the offenders.
For a receiver of a stolen item to be prosecuted, the prosecutor must prove that the item in question was indeed stolen and in the case of BABAGANA v. STATE (2020) LPELR-51431(CA) the court of appeal itemized six ingredients that must be proven or be present before an item will be deemed to have been stolen and according to the appellate court, those ingredients are;
That the property in question is movable property.
That the property was in the possession of a person.
That the accused person moved the property whilst in the possession of the person.
That he did so without the consent of that person.
That he did so in order to take the property out of the possession of that person.
That he did so with the intent to cause wrongful gain to himself or wrongful loss to that person.
The only time that a person can purchase a stolen property and will not be prosecuted is when the purchaser purchases the item from market overt because it is deemed that a reasonable person will presume that any good sold on market overt has a good root of title. A buyer in a market overt acquires a good title to the goods.
Stanley Alieke is an Abuja based legal practitioner.
