How we arrested 26 suspected oil thieves, 14 tankers – Army

The military authority yesterday told a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja that all the alleged crude oil thieves facing trial were arrested on the Lokoja- Abuja Road. The authorities said the suspects were arrested following an intelligence report.
The 26 suspected thieves were arrested with 14 tankers loaded with crude oil on March 11, 2013 by soldiers at Piri village.
Testifying for the Federal Government in an economic sabotage related charge preferred against the14 accused persons, Lieutenant Mohammed Bashir Sani told Justice Elvis Stephen Chukwu that the suspects drove 14 tankers with crude oil and on arrival at the army check point offered N20, 000 bribe per tanker to soldiers on duty in order to go unhindered.
Led in evidence by Mrs. R. A. Ayodele, the witness told the court that the suspects were arrested and moved to military locations for interrogation. He said the army authorities later invited the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further interrogation and prosecution.
The witness added the apprehended 14 tankers and the bribe money were handed over to the EFCC to aid their investigations. Cross examined by Mr. Joseph Rotimi Ojo, the lead counsel to the accused person, Lt Sani, admitted that he could not identify all the accused persons physically because their tankers came in convoy and were arrested in convoy.
He, however, told the court that he could identify them with the forensic photographs snapped while they were standing with their individual tankers.
The witness said he had never seen crude oil in his life and was not an expert on oil field, but however said that samples of the product were made available to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) refinery in Kaduna for verification.
Pressed for identification of the individual accused persons he arrested, the witness told the court that he could only identify one Bartholomew Onyema, who drove the first tanker and Joseph Amaechi, who claimed the ownership of the tankers and allegedly offered the bribe.
The accused persons are Joseph Amaechi, Isreal Friday, Ubadis Francis, Abayomi Adebisi, Abdullahi Idris, Samuel Job and Onah Peter Odey.
The rest are Sabo Tasha Hassan, Abduallahi Mohammed Abubakar Abdulkadir, Ehiogu Paul, Ibrahim Saidu, Garba Mohammed and Bartholomew Onyema.
In the four-count criminal charges preferred against them, they were accused of conspiracy and felony involving willful and malicious breaking of oil pipeline meant for the transportation of crude oil contrary and punishable under Section 3(6) of the miscellaneous offences Act Cop M17, Laws of Nigeria 2004.
The offence was alleged to have been committed at Kilometer 82, Piri Village along Abaji-Lokoja road in March this year. The charges signed by Salisu Majidadi of the legal unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also accused them of dealing in crude oild sales without lawful authority or license, and offence punishable under the miscellaneous offence Act 2004.
All the accused persons however pleaded not guilty to the charges. Their lead counsel, Mr Joseph Oluwarotimi Ojo, applied for their bail on the ground that the offence was bailable and that the court has discretional power to admit them on bail on liberal terms.
Justice Evon Chukwu adjourned ruling on the bail application till May 27.