A Magistrate Court in Kado- Life Camp Abuja has sentenced a contract staff of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) to six months in jail for stealing a laptop belonging to the board.
The culprit, Emmanuel Odey, allegedly stole the laptop on Thursday, 13 July 2023 at the board’s Zonal Office in Abuja, contravening Section 287-289 of the Penal Code.
This was revealed in JAMB’s weekly bulletin which was published on Monday.
The bulletin read in part, “Odey, a cleaner employed for cleaning services at the Board’s FCT Zonal Office, broke down in tears and admitted before the court to stealing the HP laptop worth N350,000 to pay his house rent that has expired.
“While pleading for leniency, he confessed that he had acted alone but blamed the devil for his act and begged to be given a second chance. “
According to the bulletin, during the court proceedings, the senior magistrate Egbe Joshua recognized that Odey was a first-time offender and that he had shown remorse for his crime.
“The defendant, a first-time offender, had shown remorse and had not wasted the precious time of the court and recognised youthful exuberance as a possible factor in the crime.
“The Senior Magistrate summarily tried and convicted the defendant under Section 112(8) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, and sentenced him to six months imprisonment with an option of a fine of five thousand naira, ” it added.
The Board added that in an earlier bid to find the missing HP laptop, it set up an investigating team headed by Superintendent of Police, Joy Abuma, whose “painstaking investigation” led to the arrest of the defendant and his eventual confession that he had hidden the laptop at his sister’s residence.
