THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned before the Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, 23 persons made up of 10 Nigerians, 10 Indians and three Ghanaians over their alleged involvement in crude oil theft along the waters of Brass Local Council Area of the state.
The suspects, according to EFCC counsel, were arrested by the Nigerian Navy in separate security operations aboard the MT AKSHAY and MT EVE between November 19 and 25 last year, with 232,822 litres of petroleum products suspected to be crude oil and automated gas oil.
The presiding judge, Justice Charles Archibong, after the charges were read to the suspects, adjourned the case to February 17 and asked the EFCC lawyer to provide evidence indicting the accused of the crimes and ordered that they be remanded in prison custody.
The 10 accused Indians, who did not understand English language, were allowed an interpreter in court. They all face, along with two Ghanaians, a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit felony in dealing in petroleum products "contrary to Section 3 (6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act and illegal authority to deal in 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 Offence 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, Beneth Egbegi and MT ASHKAY.
The 10 Nigerians arrested on board MT EVE also face the same charges of conspiracy to commit felony and unlawfully dealing in 75,000 litres of petroleum products suspected to be automated gas oil. They were identified as 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.
Justice Archibong turned down efforts of the lawyer to the accused persons, Mr. Femi Adegbite, to present an application for the bail of the foreigners. He insisted that before bail applications would be considered, the court must know the immigration status of the foreigners.
"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 said.
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 Nigeria.
But Adegbite said it was not true that the accused persons were in the country illegally. "They are in the country legally and the vessel is a registered flagship. They came to do a lawful duty, load petroleum products in Port Harcourt. But when they were on their way, the vessel developed a fault and at a point, they were arrested by the Navy", he said.
