5 Filipinos sentenced for oil smuggling in Nigeria

Nigeria loses $6 billion a year to the black market in smuggled oil.

SAN FRANCISCO – Go to jail or pay a big fine—choose one, a Nigerian court on Tuesday, December 15 told five sailors from the Philippines and four from Bangladesh after convicting them of oil smuggling. Their names were not available.

They were each convicted of four counts of illegally storing crude oil, each count carrying five years in prison. The sentences, however, run concurrently, meaning the nine face a maximum of five years in jail.

They can get out of the sentence by paying a fine of 20 million naira ($100,000 dollars), reported AllAfrica.com.

5 Filipino and 4 Bangladeshi crew members of the MT Asteris were convicted 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 tons of crude oil, according to AllAfrica.com. The government has confiscated the vessel.

Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer. It loses $6 billion each year from the theft of crude from sabotaged pipelines and illegal refining of oil products that are sold on the black market.

Convictions for oil smuggling are common but in most cases the offenders get away with a fine.

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