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Court jails four oil thieves in Port Harcourt

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A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers state on Tuesday, jailed four suspected oil thieves.

The suspects were served with different jail terms by Justice A. T Mohammed of the court for engaging in illegal dealing in petroleum products.

They are: Babangida Dantata, Yusuf Abdullahi, Hassan Mohammed and Dickson Peter.

The EFCC, Port Harcourt Zonal Office had arraigned the defendant on a one-count separate charge bordering on illegal dealing in petroleum products.

One of the count charge read: “That you Babangida Dantata, Yusuf Abdullahi and Hassan Mohammed sometimes in April, 2018, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did distribute petroleum products (Automotive Gas Oil) with Freightliner Tanker with registration number GME 371 XA, Mack Tanker with registration number EKY 844 XN and DAF Tanker with registration number RSH 347 ZA without a licence and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 4(1) of the Petroleum Act, Cap P10 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004 and punishable under Section 4(6) of the same Act”.

The defendants pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them.

In view of their pleas, prosecuting counsels, S. Chime and K.W. Chukwuma-Eneh prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendants accordingly.

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Meanwhile, counsel to the defendants, M. M. Suleiman did not oppose the prayer by the prosecution.

Following this Justice Mohammed convicted and sentenced Dantata, Abdullahi and Mohammed to two years imprisonment with an option of fine of One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000) each while Peter was convicted and sentenced to a fine of Fifty Thousand Naira (N50,000).

It was gathered that troubles started for the convicts when the EFCC received a petition from the Nigerian Army, 6 Division, Port Harcourt, on the illegally dealing in petroleum products of the convicts without any license.

The convicts were arrested alongside a Freightliner Tanker with registration number GME 371 XA, Mack Tanker with registration number EKY 844 XN, DAF Tanker with registration number RSH 347 ZA and a bus with registration number FN 372 ABC by the men of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army at various locations in Port Harcourt while distributing/storing illegally refined AGO, while carrying out anti-bunkering operations and were later handed over to EFCC, Port Harcourt for investigation and prosecution.

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