Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt has convicted three persons accused of involvement in the hijack of an Equatorial Guinean flagged vessel named, MV ELOBEY VI, off Equatorial Guinea's coast on March 21.
Delivering
judgement, Justice Mohammed Sani summarily convicted Binaebi Johnson, Daniel
Lemmar and Ghane Gordon on Counts 1 and 2 and they were ordered to pay a fine
of N20 million each under the new Antipiracy Act 2019.
The Nigerian Navy had arrested nine
persons, namely, Binaebi Johnson, Daniel Lemmar, Ghane Gordon, Hassan Hakeem,
Gregory Smith, Ofem Uket, John Mark, Chidi Amadi, and Eze Amadi, who were
suspected to be members of the kidnapping syndicate. They were said to have
demanded a $2 million ransom out of which $200,000 was eventually paid.
During the proceedings in the court on
August 10, Binaebi Johnson, Daniel Lemmar and Ghane Gordon pleaded guilty to
counts 1 and 2 and not guilty to counts 3 – 5 while the remaining 6 accused
persons pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Director-General of the Nigerian
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr. Bashir Jamoh, described
the conviction as a signal that Nigeria is in the right path in the war against
piracy and other crimes on the nation’s waterways.
Jamoh said NIMASA as an interested party
will continue to work closely with other agencies of government, the
international community, and other stakeholders to achieve improved security in
the Gulf of Guinea.
The Director-General stated, “This will
serve as a deterrent to other criminal elements who are still engaged in the
nefarious activities on our waterways. On our part as an agency, we will not
relent on our efforts to ensure a safe and secure maritime domain in line with
our mandate.
“The Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime
Crimes (SPOMO) Act 2019 has come to stay and it is a victory for Nigeria as a
whole as we are determined more than ever before take our rightful place in
the comity of maritime nations.”
The prosecution counsel, Labaran Magaji,
who spoke to newsmen outside the court, said the judgement was a landmark
victory for the antipiracy law. “They were charged under Section 16 (4) of the
antipiracy law and once the charge was read to them, they pleaded guilty and
the prosecution actually applied to the court to summarily convict them to pay
a fine of N20 million each and only three of the defendants were actually
sentenced,” Magaji said.
The conviction is the first since the
signing into law of the SPOMO Act in June last year by President Muhammadu
Buhari.
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