3 Indians Bag 15 Years Sentence for Oil Theft In Nigeria

A Federal High Court, sitting in Yenagoa, Balyesa State, has convicted three Indian nationals, Ajay Bhatiya (owner of Vessel MT Akshay), Sailesh Kumar Singh, (the captain of the vessel) and Chadrashekar Sharma, to 15 years imprisonment for offences bordering on oil theft.

The convicts were among 12 oil theft suspects, including eight other Indians, one Ghanaian and a Nigerian arrested aboard MT Akshay by men of the Joint Task Force, Central Naval Command, Yenagoa, sometimes in November, 2012 and handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation and prosecution.

 According to a statement issued by Mr Wilson Uwujaren, Head, EFCC Media and Publicity and dated May 14, 2014, the suspects were arraigned on a two-count charge before Justice Lambo Akanbi on January 22, 2013.

 After diligent prosecution, the court found the first and the second accused, alongside Bhatiya, the owner of the vessel (who is still at large), guilty of the first count charge, which bordered on conspiracy and convicted them accordingly.  

The other accused- Dharmaraj Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Nimesh Kodi Parambil, Ashraf Ali, Sanjeev Kumar, Sarbjot Singh, Arvind Kumar Bhardwaj, Gagan Kumar, Dele Johnson Olayemi and Benneth Egbegi  were, however, discharged and acquitted of the two-count charges preferred against them by the EFCC.

 While the court was silent on the vessel and its content, the first charge was that the accused, on or about November 25, 2012, in Brass, Bayelsa State, “within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit dealing in petroleum product and thereby, committed an offence contrary to Section 3(6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act CAP M17 of the Revised Edition(Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 2007 and punishable under Section 1(17) of the same Act."

The second count charge also read that the accused, on the same day and without any consenting authority, engaged, within same place, in the bunkering of 57,822 litres of crude oil bunkered from Auntie the Matriach Julie Rig of Conoil Nigeria Plc into MT Akshay and "thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(17)(a) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act CAP M17 of the Revised Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) 2007 and  punishment under Section 1(17) of the same Act.”