A 28-year-old auto mechanic named Akeem Jimoh has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing some tubers of yam worth about ₦35,000.
Jimoh was taken to the Osogbo Chief Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, where he openly admitted that he stole the yams. The court was told that the incident happened on Friday, July 25, 2025, around 10 pm, at the back of Africa Primary School in the Ataoja area of Osogbo.
According to the charge sheet read in court, Jimoh was accused of stealing 17 tubers of yam belonging to a man named Tiamiyu Abegunde. When the charge was read to him, Jimoh did not deny it. He had no lawyer to defend him, so he spoke for himself and pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of theft that the police brought against him.
The charge stated: “That you, Jimoh Akeem, on the 27th of July, 2025, at about 10:00 pm at the back of Africa Primary School, Ataoja Area, Osogbo, in the Osogbo Magisterial District, did steal 17 pieces of yam valued at ₦35,000, property of one Mr. Tiamiyu Abegunde. You thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 390 (9) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Vol 2, Law of Osun State of Nigeria, 2003.”
When asked why he committed the crime, Jimoh told the court that he was driven by hunger. He begged the Magistrate to have mercy on him and to reduce his punishment.
However, the police prosecutor, Babatunde Olukokun, explained that in Jimoh’s written statement after his arrest, he confessed that this was not his first time facing prison. He had previously spent three years in jail because someone he agreed to stand surety for (to guarantee their bail) ran away, leaving him to bear the punishment.
After listening to all sides, the presiding Magistrate, Muibah Olatunji, decided that Jimoh should serve three years in prison with hard labour, and he would not be given the option of paying a fine.
This case is not the first of such theft-related convictions in the region. In July, another young man, Adebanjo Segun, aged 21, was sentenced to six months in prison after he was found guilty of stealing a fowl in Ogun State. Similarly, another man named Kazeem Tobi was also sentenced to six months’ imprisonment after being convicted of stealing a generator worth about ₦120,000.
