Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal High Court in Lagos has remanded seven men in prison for allegedly vandalising a petroleum pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The men, Godbless Ebi, Gabriel Otovor, Saheed Abdulrahman, Anthony Arubayan, John Adebayo, Emmanuel Ajayi, and Godwin Joseph, were arrested by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The defendants are standing trial before Justice Awogboro on a two-count conspiracy charge and unlawful tampering with a petroleum pipeline.
The prosecutor, Mrs. O. Halima, had informed the judge that the defendants committed the offences on January 10 this year at the Obawole, Fagba area of Lagos State.
Halima also told the court that the offences contravene the provisions of Sections 1(19) and Section 3(6) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Law of the Federation, 2004.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge, a development that made the judge grant them bail in the sum of N5 million each, with two sureties in like sum.
The court also ordered that one of the sureties must be a blood relation of the defendants, with a landed property anywhere in Lagos while the other surety must have a substantial means of livelihood.
Justice Awogboro adjourned the matter to March 11 for the commencement of trial.
She, however, directed that the defendants be remanded at the Ikoyi centre of the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the perfection of the bail terms.
