The marketers; George Ogbonna and Emmanuel Morah were found guilty of a 26-count amended charge of conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and forgery preferred against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Ogbonna and his co-convicts were prosecuted alongside their firms, Downstream Energy Sources Limited and Rocky Energy Limited.
The convicts were said to have imported 10, 862 metric tonnes of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, for which they were paid the sum of money by the Petroleum Support Fund(PSF), a claim which EFCC found out to be false.
During the trial which lasted for seven years, EFCC prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, presented 11 witnesses, including Abdulrasheed Bawa, an investigator with the EFCC, and tendered documents in evidence.
Delivering judgement, Justice Okunnu sentenced the defendants to eight years imprisonment each.
The judge also ordered the convicts to return the money they fraudulently collected to the Federal Government.
Their companies were, however, discharged and acquitted by the court.
Their offences contravened Section 1 (sub-sections 1,2,3) and Section 8 of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2006
It also contravened sections 363 and 364 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2003.
and then