A Dei-dei Grade I Area Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered that a 20-year-old labourer, Mohammed Halilu in Suleja correction centre in Niger State for allegedly stealing cable wires worth N583,730.
The police charged Halilu with three counts of housebreaking, mischief and theft before the Presiding Judge Sulyman Ola.
The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Ola ordered that the accused be remanded at the Suleja correctional centre, until Aug. 23, to enable proper investigations into the matter, by the Police.
Earlier, the prosecutor Charles Ogada, told the court that Mr Vincent Bassey, of Linkron Nig. Ltd, Abuja, reported the matter at Zuba Police Station, on June 8.
Ogada alleged that, on the same date, at about 12:27 p.m., the defendant broke into a three-bedroom bungalow of an uncompleted building located within Linkron Estate at Dei-dei.
He alleged that the defendant vandalised the electric cables in the building and sold them to scrap buyers at Dei-dei market, Zuba, before being arrested security guards.
Agada told the court that, security guards attached to the Estate who were on routine duty caught the defendant with some of the cables and handed him over to the police.
The prosecutor alleged that the vandalised cables worth N583, 730. adding that the offence contravenes the provisions of sections 347, 327 and 287 of the Penal Code Law.
The prosecutor further asked for a date that would enable the police conduct thorough investigation into the matter.