A Senior Magistrate’s Court in Abuja has issued bench warrants for the arrest of former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, former Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and two others over allegations of criminal conspiracy, forgery and the use of false documents relating to senatorial primary results.
The other individuals named in the warrants are Timothy Ama Chuks and Amen Okorocha, who are accused, alongside Okorocha, of conspiring to forge and present false primary results allegedly showing the former governor as the winner.
The warrants authorise police officers across Nigeria to arrest the four individuals and produce them before Senior Magistrate Court 3 in Jiwa, Abuja.
Dated September 9, 2026, the warrants relate to case numbers CR/M/JW/084/2026 and CR/M/JW/085/2026, in which the Inspector-General of Police is listed against the four individuals.
The development comes amid a separate move by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to have security agencies investigate Okorocha over allegations that he circulated forged senatorial primary results.
In a letter dated October 8, 2026, and signed by the Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chukwuemeka Ibeziako, INEC asked the Commissioner of Police in Imo State and the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate what it described as a fraudulent and fictitious senatorial primary report for Imo State dated May 18, 2026.
INEC said the document being circulated on social media purportedly presented Okorocha as the winner of the primary for the Imo West Senatorial District, also known as Orlu zone.
The commission, however, maintained that the authentic result submitted to its headquarters by the All Progressives Congress (APC) identified Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma as the winner of the primary, with his name subsequently forwarded to INEC as the party’s candidate for the district.
“The fictitious document wrongly presented Senator Ethelbert Rochas Okorocha as the elected candidate for the party,” the commission said.
INEC enclosed copies of the original result submitted by the party and the disputed document in its letter to the security agencies, urging them to investigate the alleged forgery.
“In these circumstances, I urge you to graciously use your good offices to investigate and neutralise this spurious conduct that has a serious likelihood of causing the breakdown of law and order in Imo State,” the commission stated.
The controversy comes amid competing claims over the party’s senatorial tickets in Imo State ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Araraume has also claimed to have won the party’s senatorial primary for Imo North.
However, a report from Governor Uzodimma’s camp claimed that the incumbent senator, Patrick Ndubueze, won the party’s ticket for the district with 108,862 votes, defeating Araraume, who reportedly secured 79 votes.
The allegations surrounding the disputed primary results have intensified scrutiny of the party’s candidate selection process in the state ahead of the 2027 elections.
The allegations against Okorocha, Araraume and the other individuals remain subject to judicial determination. The issuance of bench warrants does not, in itself, establish guilt.
