Puzzle: Lawyer allegedly strangled to death in December reappears in Port Harcourt Court February

An unsolved puzzle is currently before a Port Harcourt Magistrate Court over a lawyer who was confirmed dead in December 2025 but appeared in court to represent a client in February 2026.

The court presided over by Senior Magistrate Kingsley Briggs had begun the day’s proceedings on March 12 2026 and would later be thrown into bewilderment when a case was called for a litigant to appear. When the Magistrate asked him the whereabout of his counsel, he told the court that his lawyer passed away in December 2025.

The Magistrate Briggs was stunned to hear the lawyer had passed on, because the lawyer had on February 10, 2026, appeared in the same court to plead with court not to issue a bench warrant against his client, explaining that the litigant was ill and required medical attention.

And on that plea, Magistrate Briggs adjourned the matter till March 11, 2026, only to hear that the lawyer was deceased.

The litigant insisted that his lawyer had passed on two months before the February court appearance.

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Port Harcourt, vice chairman who was
present in court, contacted the deceased lawyer’s family.
A family member confirmed that the lawyer had indeed died in December 2025 after he was strangled to death his apartment in Oyigbo area of Port Harcourt. He disclosed that the police were currently investigating his death.

The strange development left both the court and observers confused, raising questions about how the name of the deceased lawyer came to be recorded as present during the February court proceedings.

Court officials were said to be reviewing records to determine what transpired during the earlier sitting.

The case was subsequently adjourned.