Justice
A. T Mohammed of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt,
Rivers State has convicted and sentenced Babangida Dantata, Yusuf
Abdullahi, Hassan Mohammed and Dickson Peter to various jail terms for
illegally dealing in petroleum products. .
The defendants were
arraigned on Tuesday, August 6, 2019 by the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Port Harcourt’s Zonal Office, 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.
Counsel to the defendants, M. M. Suleiman did not oppose the prayer by the prosecution.
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).
Troubles started for all the
convicts when the EFCC received a petition from the Nigerian Army, 6
Division, Port Harcourt, accusing them of illegally dealing in petroleum
products without any license.
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