N800m Oil Drilling Pipes: Rivers Court Detains Ex-Anambra Guber Aspirant

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

A Chief Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered the detention of a former governorship aspirant of Anambra State, Walter Ubaka Okeke, in the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre.

The trial Chief Magistrate, A. O. Amadi-Nna, had during the last sitting on November 1, 2022, issued a bench warrant as well as a warrant of arrest against Okeke.

The former gubernatorial aspirant is facing a trial in suit number: PMC/884c/2022, which bothers on alleged stealing of oil drilling pipes and many heavy duty equipment worth over N800million.

Part of the suit filed by the state Commissioner of Police on May 27, 2022, stated that: “You, Walter Ubaka Okeke, and others now at large, did conspire to commit felony to wit: stealing, and therefore committed an offence punishable under Section 516A of the Criminal Code Law Cap 37 Vol 2, Laws of Rivers State.”

The suit further mentioned the value of the alleged stolen property to be over N800million-items said to be property of a Port Harcourt business man, Mr. Ifeanyi Amaonye, kept in the open at the accused’s compound at Trans-Amadi.

Okeke was produced in court yesterday following the Magistrate order for arrest.

The police prosecutor, Godday Amadi, had told the Chief Magistrate how the police succeeded in arresting the accused and brought to the court.

The Chief Magistrate wasted no time in ordering that “Walter Ubaka Okeke be locked up at the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre till December 8, 2022, next hearing date.”

The case was earlier stalled following the accused suit in the high court to enforce his fundamental human right which allegedly failed, but was not present in the Chief Magistrate court to answer to the charge of alleged stealing.

The accused hails from Enugwu village of Nanka in Orumba North Local Government Area, but lives in his compound at the Trans-Amadi area of the Garden City where the complainant allegedly stocked the oil drilling pipes and other heavy industrial equipment.

The matter began when the complainant, Ifeanyi Amaonye, got the information that his pieces of equipment were being carted away in trucks by the landlord of the compound where they were kept.