A Federal High Court siting in Lagos on Friday convicted and sentenced seven men to a prison term of 84 years for dealing in 1,459 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol.
They were accused of loading the product without obtaining lawful authority.
Justice Okon Abang in his verdict stated that the convicts will each serve a jail term of 12 years, commencing from Friday.
Those sentenced include, Adedamola Ogungbayi, Olaniran Olabode, Suraju Gasali and Moses Emmanuel.
Others are Wilson Bonsi, Okaraodi Uche and Onyeogo Happy.
Justice Abang also ordered the forfeiture of the vessel, MT Good Success, used by the convicts in perpetrating the crime, as well as the recovered petroleum product to the Federal Government.
He further ordered the forfeiture of the sums of N66.6m and $975,000 belonging to the convicts’ company, Hepa Global Energy Limited, domiciled with the First City Monument Bank.
The seven convicts, their vessel and company had on August 28, 2014 been re-arraigned on five counts before Abang, alongside one Padoun Jacob, who was on Fridaydischarged and acquitted by the court.
“The guilty should not escape punishment but the innocent should not be punished,” the judge held.
He, however, described the other convicts as enemies of the corporate existence of Nigeria, who had contributed to the economic woes of the country.
“The convicts have no sympathy for the corporate existence of this country. The seed of wrongdoing may be sown in secret but the harvest cannot be concealed. Today is the day of reckoning.
“You call it oil bunkering or pipeline vandalism, this menace has reached an alarming proportion in this country; enough is enough.
“The convicts are godless and lawless, without any particle of sympathy for this country. They are part of the people that have contributed to the economic woes of this country.
“The convicts planted thorns, they cannot expect to gather flowers; they sowed the wind, and they must gather whirlwind,” the judge held.
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