JAMB cleaner to spend six months in jail over theft of exam body’s laptop

For stealing a laptop, property of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), a cleaner on contract has been jailed for six months in Abuja.

The convicted contract staff, Emmanuel Odey, committed the offence on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the Board’s Federal Capital Territory Zonal Office.

The laptop is valued at N350,000.

Handing down the verdict, a Senior Magistrate, Mr Egbe Raphael Joshua, of Court 2 sitting in Kado – Life Camp, Abuja, said Odey “is guilty as charged”.

Joshua held that the defendant as a first offender had shown remorse and had not wasted the precious time of the court by pleading guilty.

The Magistrate summarily sentenced him to six months imprisonment with an option of N5,000 fine.

Persecondnews reports that Odey, a cleaner employed for cleaning the Board’s FCT Zonal Office, broke down in tears while admitting before the court to the theft of an HP laptop worth N350,000.

He said he stole the laptop to pay his house rent that was due and pleaded for leniency.

Odey confessed that he acted alone in committing the crime but blamed the devil for the act.

“It is the devil that pushed me into it …I beg to be given a second chance.”

The offence contravened Sections 287, 287 and 289 of the Penal Code.