By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Justice Mohammed Liman of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has convicted four illegal oil dealers and a vessel, MV Tim Begele, and sentenced them to imprisonment.
The convicts, Ukwuoma Ahamefula, Omeogor Nelson, Efemuaya Evans and Jude Eghreriniovo, were arrested sometime in December 2019 on board a vessel, MV Tim Begele, by the Nigerian Navy and subsequently handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation and prosecution.
They were arraigned alongside the vessel on March 4, 2020 on a three-count charge bordering on illegal dealing in 369 metric tons of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) without appropriate license.
They had initially pleaded not guilty.
However, on Thursday when the full trial was about to commence, the defendants changed their plea from “not guilty’’ to ‘‘guilty’’.
Consequently, the defendants were convicted accordingly by the court.
In the ruling, the judge sentenced them with retrospective effect. He ruled that the terms of imprisonment of the convicts would run from the date of their arrest to the date of conviction.
The Judge further ordered the vessel and the product aboard to be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
One of the counts reads: “ That you, MV Tim Begele, Ukwuoma Ahamefula, Omeogor Nelson, Efemuaya Evans, Jude Eghreriniovo and others now at large on the 3rd of December, 2019, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired among yourselves to commit an offence to wit: dealing in 3,911 metric tons of petroleum products without appropriate licence; and you, thereby, committed an offence contrary to Section 3(6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap M17, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and punishable under Section 1(17) of the same Act.”
