Four Nigerians, who stowaway to United Kingdom have been sentenced to prison for a total of seven years after being found guilty of threatening a set of people with HIV last year.
The people are believed to be crew of con/ro Grande Tema off the Themes Estuary.
The convicts are Toheeb Popoola, 27; Ishola Sunday, 28; Samuel Jolumi, 27; and Joberto McGee, 20. They were jailed after going through eight weeks of trials.
It was gathered that the men escaped after being placed on quarantine following their discovery onboard the going to Tilbury, UK from Lagos Nigeria.
Crewmembers who locked themselves on the bridge to ensure their own security and alerted the authorities, also filmed the men making “cut-throat” gestures, threatening them, brandishing metal poles and taking up fighting stances.
It was gathered that after a team from the Royal Marines Special Boat Service were sent in by helicopter to rescue the crewmembers, the men hurled faeces at the elite SBS sailors and vowed to infect them with HIV during a tense stand-off in the Thames Estuary. No one was injured in the 25-minute operation to regain control of the ship.
Upon being arrested, they were charged with hijacking and affray, a UK offense consisting of using or threatening to use unlawful violence. They were however cleared of the hijacking charge and convicted of affray during trial.
While McGee, accused of being the ringleader received a jail sentence of 32 months, Popoola was sentenced to 31 months. Sunday and Jolumi received sentences of 16 months each. The convicts might serve half of their sentences behind bars and may be detained for deportation proceedings.
