{"id":73541,"date":"2020-05-19T18:45:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T17:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=73541"},"modified":"2020-05-19T18:45:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T17:45:01","slug":"illegal-oil-bunkering-court-orders-fresh-trial-of-blue-dolphin-limited-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/illegal-oil-bunkering-court-orders-fresh-trial-of-blue-dolphin-limited-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Oil Bunkering: Court Orders Fresh Trial of Blue Dolphin Limited,\u00a0 Others"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m#msg-f:1667140863179735998\" class=\"mail-message expanded\">\n<div class=\"mail-message-header spacer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-content collapsible zoom-normal mail-show-images \">\n<div class=\"clear\">\nJustice Philomena Ekpe of the Court of Appeal, Calabar division, Cross Rivers State,\u00a0 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020\u00a0 set aside the decision of a Federal High Court sitting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, which acquitted Edward Odey Oluohu, Frank Asuquo Okon,\u00a0 Godwin Etim Anwanadung and their companies, Blue Dolphin Limited and Lib-Zone Petroleum Limited, in a case of alleged oil bunkering brought before it by the Uyo Zonal office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0 EFCC\u00a0 on May 22, 2018 arraigned\u00a0 Oluohu alongside Okon,\u00a0 Anwanadung and their companies, Blue Dolphin Limited and Lib-Zone Petroleum Limited before Justice F. O. Riman of the Federal High Court, Uyo, on a 6-count charge bordering on conspiracy and illegal dealing in petroleum products.<\/p>\n<p>When arraigned, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charges\u00a0 preferred against them , setting the stage for their trial which commenced on June 22, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>In the course of trial, the prosecution, through its counsel, Nwandu Ukoha\u00a0 presented three witnesses and tendered 14 exhibits which were all admitted in evidence.\u00a0 The defence counsel,\u00a0 Ime Umana\u00a0 moved\u00a0 a &#8216;No Case Submission&#8217;\u00a0 arguing\u00a0 that the evidence against his clients were not sufficient to justify the continuation of trial and\u00a0 urged the court to discharge and acquit them.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Riman upheld the argument\u00a0 of the defence and ruled that the prosecution\u00a0 could not link the accused persons with the charges pressed against them.\u00a0 She\u00a0 thereafter invoked the provisions\u00a0 of Section 302 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, and acquitted the accused persons\u00a0 and dismissed the charges against them.<\/p>\n<p>Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC filed a Notice of Appeal on November 3, 2018 and prayed the court to set aside the acquittal of the accused persons.<\/p>\n<p>Delivering judgment on Monday May 18, 2020, at the Court of Appeal, Justice\u00a0 Ekpe on behalf of Justice M. L. Shuaibu, upheld the appeal filed by the EFCC\u00a0 and ordered\u00a0 a fresh trial.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis appeal is meritorious and hereby allowed&#8221;,\u00a0 she\u00a0 ruled.<\/p>\n<p>The Judge\u00a0 thereafter ordered the Honourable Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the matter to another Judge for retrial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mail-message-footer spacer collapsible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice Philomena Ekpe of the Court of Appeal, Calabar division, Cross Rivers State,\u00a0 on Tuesday, May 19, 2020\u00a0 set aside the decision of a Federal High Court sitting in Uyo,&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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