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| The suspects |
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Port Harcourt Zonal Office, on Monday, March 25, 2019 arraigned the duo of Ibrahim Abba and Isah Magaji before Justice M.L Abubakar of the Federal High Court, sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on a three-count charge, bordering on conspiracy and dealing in petroleum products without license.
Abba and Magaji ran into troubled when they were arrested in January, 2019 on East West Road, Port Harcourt, by the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police, 6 Division, Port Harcourt with about twenty thousand (20,000) litres of petroleum products without any operating license as petroleum dealers and were handed over to the EFCC for prosecution.
An IVECO truck, with Registration Number: BAM 64 XA loaded with the suspected stolen petroleum products was handed over to the Commission alongside the suspects.
One of the count charge reads, “that you, Ibrahim Abba and Isah Magaji on or about 14th day of January, 2019 at East West Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did conspire among yourselves to commit felony to wit: dealing in petroleum product without appropriate license and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 2 (6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap m17 of the Revised Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) Act 2007 and Punishable under Section 1 (17) of the same Act.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
In view of their no guilty plea, the prosecuting counsel, Tanko Iko prayed the court to fix a date for their trial and for the defendants to be remanded in prison custody.
Defense counsel, C.I Akpudi informed the court of an application for bail of his clients, which was opposed by the prosecuting counsel on the ground that he was served the application late and needed time to respond to it.
Justice Abubakar adjourned the matter to April 1, 2019 for hearing of the bail application and remanded the defendants in prison custody.
