The Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos State, has remanded two Chinese nationals, Zhang Hong Lin and Zhao Pei Hai, for allegedly engaging in illegal mining operations in the country.
They were remanded after pleading not guilty to the charge leveled against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the court.
After they pleaded not guilty to the five-count charge on Wednesday when the anti-graft agency arraigned them, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke.
The charges were related to the unlawful possession and exportation of mineral resources across the country.
One of the counts reads: “That you, ZHANG HONG LIN, GAO PEI HAI AND GAO PEI YU (AT LARGE) sometime in 2025 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, conspired between yourselves and with intent to defraud the Federal Government of Nigeria of the revenue accruing therefrom and without the permission of the appropriate authority, engaged in the exportation of “Mica Products, Copper bearing and Lithium bearing mineral resources” out of Nigeria, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8 (a) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, 1983 and punishable under Section 8 of the same Act.”
They pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when they were read to them, a development that prompted the prosecution counsel, Bilkisu Buhari, who appeared with C.C. Okezie and H.U Kofarnaisa, to pray the court for a trial date and the defendants’ remand in a Correctional Centre.
The defence counsel, however, prayed the court to remand his clients in the EFCC’s custody pending the hearing of the bail application.
Justice Aneke rejected the application and remanded them in a Correctional Centre, as well as adjourned the matter till July 4, 2025 for the commencement of trial.
