A Nigerian court dropped charges of arms trafficking
against seven Russian sailors on Tuesday, their lawyer
said, ending a year-long case that has frayed
diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Russia.
The seven were among 15 Russian sailors charged with
illegally bringing weapons into Nigeria last year, after
Nigerian authorities intercepted a ship on October 23
and found on board several guns and thousands of
rounds of ammunition.
The other eight had already had the charges against
them dropped in June.
Confirming Tuesday’s verdict, defense lawyer Ogidigba
Mobosa also told Reuters TV that two Nigerians who
had been aboard the ship had been charged with
wrongfully telling the Russians they had permission to
enter Nigerian territory with the weapons.
The boat was operated by Nigerian shipping company
Blue Sea Maritime. The Russian sailors did not explain
during the court hearings why the arms were on board.
The Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed the court
verdict and said in a statement that it would help future
bilateral ties.
The Russian sailors – Zhelyazkov Andrey; Savchenko
Sergel; Lopatin Alexey; Baranovskly Nikolay; Llia
Shubov; Dimitry Bannyrh; along with Alexander
Tsarikov; Kononov Sergel; Chichkanov Vasily; Varlygin
Igor; Komilov Alexander; Mishin Pavel; Korotchenko
Andrey; Vorobev Mikhail and Stepan Oleksiuk were
arrested by the Nigeria Navy on October 18, last year,
onboard a vessel, MV Myre Seadiver, for allegedly
carrying cache of arms into the nation’s water without
authorisation.
They were handed over to the prosecuting agencies,
who later charged the accused to court on four counts
of unlawful importation of firearms and non disclosure
of content of vessel.
The accused were first arraigned on February 19 before
Justice Okechukwu Okeke now retired.
They had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were
released on bail to the Russian Ambassador to Nigeria,
while the vessel was admitted to bail in a bond of $500,
000(USD) to be obtained from First Bank Plc.
Following Okeke’s retirement, the case was transferred
to Justice Jame Tsoho.
They had pleaded not guilty to the offences which were
said to have contravened Sections 27 of the Firearms
Act, as well as the Provisions of the Miscellaneous
Offence Act, 2004.
At the resumed hearing before Tsoho, prosecuting
counsel, Mrs. Usman Hajara informed the court of an
amended charge before it.
She said that all previous charges against the Russians
have been dropped while an amended charge against
one Stanley Chineye and his firm, Maritime Services
Limited was filed.
Hajara prayed the court to strike out the charges
against the Russians, their vessel as well as their
company, Moral Security Group Limited, while the
amended charge be substituted.
Tsoho granted the prosecution’s prayer by striking out
the charges against the foreigners and fixed November
26 for trial of the new accused.
According to the amended charge, Chineye allegedly
acted as agent to the Russian vessel and had allegedly
misguided them that he had obtained permit from the
navy for the vessel to enter the nation’s waters, which
was false.

Naija!