School vandal jailed 18 months

JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin

An Oredo Magistrate Court sitting in Benin, capital of Nigeria’s Edo state, has sentenced 18 year-old Ogunbajo Olumide to 18 months imprisonment with hard labour for vandalizing a school primary school building.

Olumide who pleaded guilty to the two-count charge of stealing, willful and malicious destruction of public property, was said to have sometime in September this year, broken into the premises of Fabiyi Akpata Primary School, Benin City, vandalized and stole PVC aluminum frames and some accessories, valued at several thousands of Naira from some of the newly-constructed blocks of classrooms by the state government.

The convict also confessed to the court that he was an ex-pupil of the school.

Delivering judgement in the case, Chief Magistrate R. A. Ogbevoen said the accused deserves no mercy, and therefore sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment without an option of fine.

Meanwhile, the court has fixed December 12, 2012 as the definite hearing and trial date of the second accused person, 25-year-old Mallam Nuru Abubakar, who was named by the convict to be his partner-in-crime as the receiver and buyer of the vandalized, stolen items.

Ogunbajo Olumide and the second accused person, Nuru Abubakar, were apprehended by security operatives attached to the Bishop’s Court, Anglican Communion in Benin, shortly after committing the crime.