It was two days of legal fireworks in a Port Harcourt High Court whether the Warrant of Arrest earlier issued against Walter Ubaka Okeke, the former guber aspirant of the Anambra State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be renewed and published in national newspapers or not. It was in a case of criminal prosecution involving N800m drilling equipment belonging to Ifeanyi Amaonye, said to have been moved or stolen by Okeke for which he (Okeke) has been standing trial since October 2022.
The Rivers State Prosecution Unit represented in Court by Chidi Eke asked for it to be published to enable manhunt to begin globally.
The defendant’s lawyer, E.S Ekene, resisted that, saying the application must come by way of ‘motion on notice’. Chinwendu Nwogu, the judge, was in the centre. Both counsels quoted various laws to back their positions. After two days of listining, Nwogu ruled approving newspaper publication.
By this, the third round of manhunt begun to apprehend Okeke, politician and a Port Harcourt resident who is said to now be staying in London.
This third manhunt was ordered by Nwogu of the High Court who just ordered all security agencies anywhere in the world to join in the hunt.
The politician’s troubles began at a Port Harcourt Chief Magistrate’s Court who issued a bench warrant and warrant of arrest against the onetime Anambra State PDP governorship aspirant in the sensitive case in Port Harcourt.
The accused hails from Enugwu village of Nanka in Orumba North local council area, but lives in his own compound at the Trans-Amadi area of the Port Harcourt City, where the prosecution witness allegedly stocked the oil drilling pipes and other heavy industrial equipment said to be worth N800m.
The first hunt began on October 31, 2022, when the Chief Magistrate, Amadi Nnah, ordered that the accused (Okeke) be arrested for repeatedly failing to appear in his court.
Okeke was later arrested and sent to the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre until December 2022. He later secured a N100m bail. The State later terminated the case at that level after filing fresh charges at the High Court.
The High Court issued another manhunt or bench warrant on Friday May 12, 2023 when the accused also began to stay away from the new court case. Okeke later appealed against the new bench warrant. The appeal was said to have been dismissed and the High Court had to resume trial but the accused was said to have resumed absenteeism. Prosecution lawyers said he fled to London.
Now, for the third time, a bench warrant has been re-issued and another manhunt has been ordered against him (the former aspirant). The judge has ordered that a bench warrant against Walter Okeke be now published in well-circulating national newspapers.
Okeke is standing trial for case of theft of oil servicing materials belonging to (Ifeanyi) Amaonye, an Anambra-born but Port Harcourt-based businessman, who incidentally stockpiled the drilling equipment in Okeke’s compound.
The Justice, Nwogu, of the Rivers State High Court issued the order Tuesday, October 27, 2026, while delivering a ruling in an oral application raised by the Rivers State Attorney-General in a case against Okeke (Charge No. PHC/924/CR/2023: The State v. Walter Ubaka Okeke).
The judge said he agreed with the prosecutor, 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 to come by way of ‘motion on notice’.
In his ruling, Justice Nwogu traced the history of the bench warrant to 2023 and showed how the defendant had remained elusive and had gone on appeal against the bench warrant.
The judge averred that when a court is satisfied that a defendant was 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/her to court for trial.
The judge ordered that Okeke be apprehended anywhere in the world and be brought to the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre. He fixed resumption of trial on November 30, 2026. Okeke’s lawyer was not in court to hear the ruling, having earlier the previous day informed the court that he had a crowded day in other courts.
Explaining the background and implications of the court ruling to newsmen outside the court, Eke, the Deputy Director, Department of Public Prosecution, Rivers State, and the Prosecuting Counsel in the case said: ‘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.’
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.’
The deputy director made it clear that nobody is above the law. ‘It doesn’t matter what office you occupy, it doesn’t matter what name you bear, it doesn’t matter your status in society; the law is the law, and the law will take its course.
‘If you go contrary to the law, the law will come after you. It doesn’t matter how long-there is no limitation to prosecution. If you run away, whenever we get you, we resume.’
He also said this is a warning to people of high standing in society. ‘The whole essence of prosecution and punishment is deterrence. The most important thing that punishment does when judgment is obtained against a defendant is deterrence. It’s for once those who have that penchant to commit crime to say stay away from crime. It doesn’t pay; otherwise, you’ll be humiliated at the end of the day.
‘That is the whole essence of the law in a sane society, which was what we are trying to make Nigeria to look like, where law speaks and where no persons will be seen in the society as above the law. Nobody is above the law.’
Surrender now – Prosecutor
Eke advised the fleeing accused that surrendering is the best option. ‘The process is for him to appear before the court. Any relief he seeks can only be when he is before the court. But the idea of trying to frustrate the course of justice by making himself unavailable to stand trial for many years now is wrong. He even went on appeal, and that appeal was dismissed. He didn’t follow it up with further appeal, yet, he doesn’t want to appear before the High Court that made an order that he should come.
‘If people should continue to be allowed to do that, then there is no law. The law would end up being a mockery. The law is the law and is above everybody. If the law says appear, you have to appear. Even as a lawyer talking, if I go contrary to the law, if I find myself on the wrong side of the law, this gown and wig that I’m wearing will not come to my aid. It will even be worse that I am a lawyer who knows the law, that I should have known better not to go or be on the wrong side of the law, but always work within the ambit of the law.’
Background of the ruling:
Ifeanyi Amaonye (a knight and chief who is the prosecution witness), is a businessman in PH that supplies oil drilling materials to the hydrocarbon industry, according to statements made to the police. He had plenty materials exposed along the road.
He sought to hire a compound to keep them. Someone mentioned that Walter Ubaka Okeke was a fellow Anambra man and could be approached to spare the vacant section of his compound in Trans-Amadi area of the state capital.
Amaonye and his team allegedly approached Okeke and he agreed and allegedly named no fee on account that they both were from same state. Along the line, according to statements filed in court, the landlord (Okeke), began to demand for rent. Thus, the relationship became a rent-paying one.
Next, news broke to Amaonye that trucks were loading his materials away. The businessman said he sent people and they met armed men guarding the evacuation. The landlord allegedly announced that the items were his. About eight trucks had allegedly been loaded and some truckloads sold already. A struggle ensued. Each party brought in either police or soldiers.
At last, the police established that Amaonye was the real owner and that Walter Okeke the politician was the landlord who has now been accused of stealing what he was expected to protect or guard.
The police thus arrested him and charged him to the Chief Magistrate’s Court headed by Amadi Nnah, a chief. Many intrigues played up getting to the office of the then Inspector-General of Police, until the Rivers State Government stepped in and charged the case to the High Court and terminated the one at the Magistrate’s.
The High Court also issued a Bench Warrant because Okeke was said to be always failing to come to court. He was even detained in the Correctional Centre at a point to ensure he came to the court when it was at the Magistrate’s Court.
Okeke appealed against the Bench Warrant from the High Court and this stalled the action in the High Court. He also sued to enforce his fundamental human rights while the criminal proceedings were on. These gave him reliefs that made him to travel abroad and this allegedly presented a narrative of having won his cases.
Now, he won the fundamental human rights case but he lost the appeal against his bench warrant. This automatically meant he has to return to the High Court to resume facing the charge of theft and robbery and many other charges.
It is this aspect he is fighting right now. The State asked the court to approve publishing the Warrant of Arrest in national newspapers so Interpol and others can join and maybe smoke him out from London.
Yet, more fireworks are expected because of the high stakes in the case and the calibre of the personalities involved.