Alleged bench warrant: Okorocha demands court order within 48 hours

Former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has challenged those reporting that a magistrate court issued a bench warrant for his arrest over alleged forgery to produce the court order within 48 hours.

Okorocha, through his Chief Press Secretary and Special Adviser on Media, Sam Onwuemeodo, on Saturday dismissed the report as false, insisting that neither a magistrate court nor the High Court had ordered his arrest.

In a statement, the former governor questioned the circumstances surrounding the reported warrant, arguing that the timeline raised concerns about how investigations could have been concluded within 24 hours.

He said the report claimed that a petition was dated October 8, 2026, while the alleged bench warrant was issued on October 9.

Okorocha also faulted the report’s account of the dates, saying it referred to September 9, 2026, as the date the warrant was issued, despite the petition allegedly prompting the action being dated October 8.

“The burden now is on those behind the trending story of the court order for the arrest of Okorocha to unveil the court order or bench warrant,” the statement said.

The former governor challenged the authors of the report to make the document public within 48 hours.

He further denied that the Independent National Electoral Commission or the commission’s Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barrister Ibejiako, had petitioned against him or requested an investigation into his activities.

According to the statement, the petition concerned a document in circulation which allegedly portrayed Okorocha as the winner of the All Progressives Congress primary for the Imo West Senatorial District.

Okorocha said the petition requested that the police and the Department of State Services investigate the document, rather than indicting him.

He questioned whether the security agencies could have completed their investigations and obtained a court order within a day of the petition.

“Assuming it was submitted the same day, was it possible for both the DSS and police to have concluded their investigations on Friday, October 9, 2026, when the story of the court order for arrest began to trend? The answer is ‘No’,” the statement said.

The former governor urged members of the public to disregard the report, adding that the All Progressives Congress needed peace at the moment.

However, the statement did not include a court-certified document or an independent confirmation from the judiciary to establish whether a bench warrant had been issued.

The claim therefore remains disputed, with Okorocha insisting that no court ordered his arrest and challenging those behind the report to produce evidence of the alleged warrant.