Appeal Court affirms prison sentence of nine foreigners over Oil theft

The Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, on Monday affirmed the judgement of Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos which sentenced five Filipinos and four Bangladeshi to five years imprisonment for stealing crude oil from Nigeria.

Justice Buba had on December 15, 2015, found the nine foreigners guilty of stealing 3,423.097 metric tonnes of crude oil. He, however, gave each of them an option of N20million fine.

Dissatisfied with the verdict, the convicts; Axel Jabone, Zahirul Islam, Juanito Infantado, Suarin Alave, Gatila Gadayan, Islam Shahinul, Islam Rafiqul, Shaikh Nomany and Rolando Comendador, lodged an appeal seeking to overturn the judgement.

However, in a ruling on the appeal, the three-man panel, comprising Justices Hussein Mukhtar (presiding), M. L. Shuaib and Frederick Oho, resolved all issues in favour of the respondent (EFCC).
Delivering judgement in the matter, Justice Oho dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.

He said: “All the issues are resolved against the appellants. The appeal is manifestly unmeritorious and is hereby dismissed for lacking in merit.”

The foreign nationals were dragged before the lower court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a four-count charge of illegal dealing in petroleum products.