A Port Harcourt High Court has ordered that a bench warrant issued against Walter Okeke, a former Anambra State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial aspirant, be published in national newspapers.
Key Highlights
- Rivers State High Court orders publication of bench warrant against Walter Okeke in national dailies.
- Okeke is standing trial over alleged theft of oil servicing materials worth ₦800m.
- Justice Chinwendu Nwogu says the defendant has evaded trial since the warrant was issued in 2023.
- Court orders Okeke be apprehended anywhere in the world and brought to Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.
- Trial adjourned to November 30, 2026.
Okeke is standing trial for alleged theft of oil servicing materials worth ₦800m belonging to Ifeanyi Amaonye, a Port Harcourt-based businessman, his tenant.
Justice Chinwendu Nwogu of the Rivers State High Court issued the order while delivering a ruling in an oral application raised by the state attorney-general in a case against Okeke.
The judge said he agrees with the prosecutor, Chidi Eke, a deputy director in the Ministry of Justice, that the oral application for ‘leave of court’ to publish was in order.
The defence counsel, E.S. Ekene, had objected to the oral application, saying it required a ‘motion on notice’.
Defendant Bent On Evading Trial, Judge Rules
In his ruling, Nwogu traced the history of the bench warrant to 2023 and showed how the defendant has remained elusive and has gone on appeal against the bench warrant.
The judge ruled that when a court is satisfied that a defendant is bent on evading trial, the court would be under obligation to order the bench warrant to be published in the newspapers.
He said this is to secure the support of all security agencies to help in apprehending the accused and bringing him or her to court for trial.
The judge ordered that Okeke be apprehended anywhere in the world and brought to the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.
He fixed resumption of trial for November 30, 2026. Okeke’s lawyer was not in court to hear the ruling, having informed the court the previous day that he had a crowded day in other courts.
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Prosecutor Explains Implications
Explaining the background and implications of the court ruling to newsmen outside the court, Eke said the state is prosecuting Okeke for the alleged offence committed a couple of years ago.
“Today, the court has granted our application to publish a bench warrant earlier issued against him before he disappeared to the United Kingdom, evading appearance or rather concealing himself to frustrate that bench warrant from being executed.
“So today, the court has granted us order, leave of court, to publish the said bench warrant in any number of the national dailies, so that every effort would be made to have him arrested and brought before the court on the next adjourned date, being November 30, 2026,” he said.
On the implications, he said it would help raise national awareness that such a man is wanted, “and that he is a fugitive in the eyes of the law. It is also a declaration that the law will go to any length to have him arrested anywhere in the world.
“Once this order is registered with the appropriate authorities, and they see that publication in the newspaper confirming that indeed the court issued that order and granted the leave that it should be published in the national dailies anywhere he is, they’ll fish him out and produce him before the court.”
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