THEFT OF LAPTOP: Cleaner Jailed For Six Months .

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A Magistrate Court 2 sitting in Kado Life Camp, Abuja, has jailed a contract staff with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for six months for stealing an HP laptop belonging to the Board.

According to the charge sheet read to the defendant, Emmanuel Odey, who was alleged to have committed the crime on Thursday, 13th July, 2023, at the Board’s FCT Zonal Office, Abuja, contrary to Section 287-289 of the Penal Code and punishable under the same section.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 three hundred and fifty thousand naira(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. After cross-examination, the Senior Magistrate, Mr. Egbe Rapheal Joshua, stated that 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.Earlier, in its bid to unravel the mystery of the missing HP laptop, the Board had 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 in his sister’s residence