A Port Harcourt High Court has ordered that a bench warrant against a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) guber aspirant in Anambra State , Walter Okeke, be now published in a national newspapers.

Okeke is standing trial for case of theft of oil servicing materials worth N800m belonging to Ifeanyi Amaonye, a Port Harcourt-based businessman, his tenant.

Chinwendu Nwogu of the Rivers State High Court issued the order today, on 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, 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 ‘motion on notice’.

In his ruling, 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 ruled 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 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 involving the State is prosecuting Okeke for the alleged offense 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.

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.”

Eke advised the fleeing accused, saying 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.” (Guardian)