By Ridwanullah Sakariyah
Proceedings at a Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt were abruptly halted on Wednesday after the court discovered that a lawyer previously listed as present in its record had died months earlier.
The presiding magistrate, Kingsley Briggs, suspended further hearing in the matter when a litigant informed the court that his lawyer had passed away in December 2025.
The development shocked the court because official records showed that the same lawyer had appeared during an earlier sitting in February this year.
According to information revealed in court, the lawyer had earlier pleaded on behalf of the litigant, explaining that his client could not attend the hearing due to illness. Based on that plea, the court allowed the case to be adjourned instead of issuing a bench warrant.
However, when the matter came up again on Wednesday and the counsel was absent, the litigant told the court that the lawyer had died months before the February sitting.
Following the disclosure, the court invited the Nigerian Bar Association officials present in court to help verify the claim.
The Vice Chairman of the association’s Port Harcourt branch immediately advised that the lawyer’s family should be contacted to confirm the situation.
A family member later reached by phone confirmed that the lawyer died in December 2025.
The relative also disclosed that the lawyer was allegedly killed in his apartment in Oyigbo, a community in Rivers State, and that police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death.
The revelation forced the court to put the case on hold while the matter surrounding the lawyer’s reported court appearance is clarified.
Court observers described the situation as unusual, raising questions about how the deceased lawyer’s name came to be recorded in the court’s proceedings months after his death.
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