Controversial Nigerian singer, Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable, has avoided going to prison after paying a N30,000 fine for assault.
On Tuesday, a Magistrate Court sitting in Ifo, Ogun State, sentenced Portable to three months in jail for assaulting a man named Osimosu Emmanuel Oluwafemi. However, the court gave him an option to pay a fine instead of serving the jail term.
Chief Magistrate Babajide Ilo found the singer guilty of two charges. On the first charge, he was sentenced to one month in prison or a N10,000 fine. On the second, he was given two months in prison or a N20,000 fine.
Portable chose to pay the fine, which totaled N30,000, and avoided going to jail.
The police prosecutor, Inspector Olumide Awoleke, told the court that Portable committed the offence on November 18, 2022, in Okeosa, Ilogbo, within the Ifo Magisterial District.
The charge sheet stated: “That you, Habeeb Okikiola a.k.a. Portable, and others now at large, on the 18th day of November 2022… did conspire among yourselves to commit a felony to wit: assault, and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 517 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State, 2006.”
It also added that the singer assaulted a man by beating him and was involved in the theft of music equipment, including a Yamaha studio monitor, a connection cable, and a condenser microphone.
Although the court only found him guilty of the assault charges, the case had started in April 2023. Portable was first arraigned on three counts of assault and theft. He was granted bail for N300,000 with two sureties, but later failed to show up in court, which led to his arrest and being held in prison before the final judgment.
He was brought back to court on Tuesday when the judgment was given.
