How oil thieves caught with N200million product got away with N2,000 fine — Court
The court described the plea bargain agreement filed by a federal prosecutor to give the oil thieves soft landing as sordid, unpleasant, and dirty.
Nine oil thieves and their vessel caught with N200million worth of stolen crude oil in 2015 are going to walk free after paying N2,000 fine each.
They were in November 2021, remanded in prison by the Federal High Court in Warri, Delta State, for them to pay the paltry fine and meet other conditions to be totally free.
The trial judge, Okon Abang, fumed over the scheming by the prosecution and the defence that brought about the inconsequential sentence in his judgement delivered on November 24, 2021.
Onyeka Ohakwe, the prosecutor from the Federal Ministry of Justice, had filed a questionable plea bargain agreement with the defence, after drastically watering down the charges in October.
She amended the case trading the original charges that carried life jail with the one punishable merely by the inconsequential N2,000 fine.
“What manner of amendment,” the judge wondered in his judgement, noting that it was not done in public interest.
He noted that charges are supposed to be amended “to strengthen and enhance the case of the prosecution”, but that in the case, “I am seeing for the first time where a charge is amended to give the defendants soft landing.”
