Nigeria sentences nine Asian sailors for oil
smuggling
Lagos - A Nigerian court on Tuesday gave five
sailors from the Philippines and four from
Bangladesh a choice between jail and paying a
hefty fine after convicting them of oil smuggling.
The suspects were arrested in March in Lagos
Lagoon aboard the MT Asteris, which
prosecutors said was used to illegally store 3,423
tonnes of crude oil.
They were each convicted of four counts of
illegally storing crude oil.
Each count carries five years in prison but the
sentences run concurrently, meaning the nine
face a maximum of five years jail.
Also read: Migrant smuggling in Libya a booming
trade
Alternatively they can pay a fine of 20 million
naira ($100,000 dollars).
The government has taken ownership of the
vessel.
Africa's biggest oil producer loses billions of
dollars each year from the theft of crude from
sabotaged pipelines and illegal refining of oil
products.
The oil is sold on the lucrative black market,
depriving the continent's most populous state of
an estimated $6 billion a year in lost revenue.
Convictions for oil smuggling are common but in
most cases the offenders get away with a fine.
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