A Warri Chief Magistrate�s Court pre-sided over by Mrs. Eli B. Osemwenbie, on Monday, ordered that the 14 Filipinos arrested for illegal oil bunkering by the Joint Task Force code named Operation Restore Hope be remanded in prison custody.
The magistrate, who handed down the order after hearing the argument from the defence counsel, Paul Omozele and Mrs. Theodora Uloho, who is the Delta State Director of Public Prosecution, said the accused be remanded at Warri Federal Prisons pending when the case would be filed at the appropriate court.
The chief magistrate said the court had power to remand the accused persons until they were brought before the appropriate court and adjourned the case till August 13.
The 14 accused Filipinos were slammed with a three-count charge of committing felony including �tampering with oil pipelines; willfully and maliciously tampering with the free flow of petroleum products through the pipeline and dealing in petroleum products without lawful authority or appropriate licence and thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 17(b) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, Cap M.17 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The Filipinos were arrested around Akassa community in Bayelsa State by the JTF on July 11 after allegedly siphoning crude oil from the Agip pipeline at Imgbakika creek.
Their vessel flying Panama flag but registered and owned by a Greek shipping company called Corinthian, was sailing towards the high sea with 160 metric tonnes of allegedly stolen crude without its navigational light on when they were apprehended by two JTF gunboats.