The Imo State Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Hilary Ekeh, may be in for more troubles as an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court has thrown out an application he brought to quash the Bench Warrant the court earlier issued against him for refusing to appear before the court.
When the matter came up on April 14, 2015, Chief Magistrate Baba Shalu expressed indignation that Imo APC Chairman who was again absent from the court, had the temerity to bring such an application before the court even when he was accused of jumping bail. The obviously embittered chief magistrate, in refusing the application to rescind the earlier order that Ekeh be re-arrested and remanded in Prison custody, further revoked the bail the court had granted Ekeh. He ordered that the two Federal Civil Servants, who stood in as sureties for the Imo APC Chairman should immediately be arrested and detained alongside Ekeh till May 7, 2015, the next adjourned date when they should be brought before the court.
It will be recalled that the Imo APC Chairman, Chief Hilary Ekeh is standing trial in an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court on a two court charge of forgery and criminal defamation of character against the Obi of Obinugwu and Chairman, Imo State and South East Councils of Traditional Rulers, HRH Eze (Dr) Cletus Ilomuanya.
Ekeh had through advertorials in two national dailies, Daily Sun and ThisDay newspapers in September, 2014, alleged vide a purported court extract of a Calabar High Court judgment that Eze Ilomuanya was convicted of fraud in Calabar in 2006. This allegation, the police in Abuja had investigated and found it to be completely false, hence the police charged Ekeh to court for forgery and criminal defamation of character. Ekeh was first arraigned on October 13, 2014 and granted bail after he had spent about two weeks in Kuje Prisons, Abuja before the stiff bail conditions were met by the two federal civil servants whom the court had now ordered for their arrest and detention until Ekeh is apprehended by the police.
