Six men appeared on Thursday before Justice Idris at the Federal High Court on a seven-count charge which includes the killing of three NNPC staff and vandalizing oil pipeline.
The men pleaded not guilty to all charges while the prosecutor, assistant commissioner of police, Friday Ibadin asked the court to adjourn hearing on the case to allow the accused persons hire a lawyer to stand for them in court.
The presiding judge then adjourned the case till the 18th December 2012.
The six men being prosecuted for the killings of the NNPC staff were rounded up between October 6th and 7th from a gang of pipeline vandals in the Arepo community after the decomposed bodies of the NNPC staff were discovered by men of the Special Task Force on Anti-Pipeline Vandalism, led by Mr Ibadin after four week of searching on the waterways and creek around the scene of vandalism in Arepo, Ogun state.
The bodies had since been identified as those of the deputy manager in charge of Pipelines Right of Way (PROW) and two other engineers deployed to effect repairs on a vandalised pipeline in Arepo on September 5.
According to Mr Ibadin, officers using speedboats and helicopters to comb the creeks near Arepo dug up the bodies in two shallow graves across a river after a confessional statement from one of the arrested suspects.
Nigerians have attributed the scarcity of fuel experienced in Lagos and environs at about September to the Arepo vandalism.