EFCC arraigns 13 foreigners, Nigerians for oil theft

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Tuesday arraigned 10 Indians, three Ghanaians and 10 Nigerians accused of oil theft before a Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The Nigerian Navy arrested and handed over the suspects to the EFCC for prosecution.

After the charges were read to them, the court presided over by Justice Charles Archibong, remanded them in prison custody.

The Indians and two Ghanaians, who were arrested on board a vessel, MT ASHKAY, were in the first count, charged with conspiracy to commit felony in dealing in petroleum products “contrary to section 3 (6)  of the Miscellaneous Offences Act.”

In another charge, they were said to have without “authority conveyed 157,822 litres of petroleum products suspected to be crude oil bunkered from Auntie the Matriarch Julie Rig of Con Oil Nig. Plc into MT ASHKAY, an offence contrary to Section 1(17) of the Miscellaneous Offfence Act.”

The suspects are Sailesh Singh, Chandrashekar Sharma, Dharmaraj Kuma, Ajay Kumar, Nimesh Parambil, Ashraf Ali, and Sanjeev Kumar.

Others are Sarbjot Singh, Arvind Bhardwaj, Gagan Kumar, Dele Olayemi, and Beneth Egbegi.

The 10 Nigerians arrested on board MT EVE faced the charge of conspiracy to commit felony and unlawfully dealing in 75,000 litres of petroleum products product suspected to be Automated Gas Oil.

 They are Pius Dajahya, Akpos Owei, David Kent, John Mensan, Okebunde Jackson and John Okereke.

Others are Ochuku Jacob, Frank Chukwubueze, Dargani Issufu, Everest Anya and Peter Ekori.

The suspects, however, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

But a mild drama ensued in the court when the Judge rebuffed efforts of the counsel for the accused persons, Mr. Femi Adegbite, to present an application for the bail of the foreigners.

Archibong insisted that before granting the bail application, the court must know the immigration status of the foreigners.

He said, “The court must know every detail about the identities of the accused persons and whether they were in the country legally. The court must know their immigration status and whether the ship was registered anywhere.”

He wondered why the prosecuting lawyer, Mr. Edobor Gabriel, failed to include in the charge sheet, his claims that the accused persons had no permit to enter the country.