Court jails five Indians for oil theft
The Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday sentenced five Indians to one year imprisonment each for oil theft.
It was gathered that the convicts, Visal Guleria, Pranjal Singh, Rahul Pathania, Akash Kumar and Sahil Sharma, were arrested by officers of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS, Beecroft, Alaka, Lagos , on January 31, 2020, aboard the vessel, MV Bount, carrying 45.9 MT of Automotive Gas Oil, with no relevant documentation.
The convicts were subsequently arraigned before Justice Rilwan Aikawa on three counts bordering on illegal dealing in petroleum products.
According to a statement by the Head on Media and Publicity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, the convicts who initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, later pleaded guilty.
In a view of the plea of the convicts, the prosecution counsel, U.U Buhari, reviewed that facts of the matter and urged the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.
Justice Aikawa, after listening to the allocutus of the defence counsel, convicted and sentenced the defendants to one year imprisonment on each count, which would run concurrently from the date of their arrest.