Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for the detained leader of
the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has said that the
Department of State Services detained and interrogated him for hours on
Wednesday when he visited his client in the custody of the secret police.
Ejimakor and another counsel for Kanu, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, made
this known in a statement jointly signed on Thursday.
In the statement titled, ‘Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention
condition at the DSS amounts to torture,’ the IPOB leader’s counsels said
Kanu’s condition in custody “continues to be harsh, degrading and inhumane” despite
a court order to the contrary.
“That he is solitarily confined to a very tiny cell
twenty-three (23) hours of the day without access to sunlight and any social
interactions whatsoever. He believes that this is aimed at inflicting extreme
emotional and mental distress on him and breaking him psychologically.
“That any detainee who encounters and greets him during the
single hour he is allowed outside his cell is promptly put in solitary
confinement or transferred to maximum security as a punishment for exchanging
mere greetings with him. Because of this, detainees have resorted to avoiding
him and exchanging salutations with him, not to talk of any other form of
social interactions.
“That since the Nigerian government extraordinarily
renditioned him, he has not been allowed a change of clothing; and his Jewish
prayer shawls and other religious materials brought to him by his Counsel were
rejected and returned.
“That the DSS has refused to replace his corrective glasses
(lenses) which were smashed to smithereens by agents of the Nigerian government
in the process of the violence they unleashed on him while abducting him in
Kenya. This has led to a rapid deterioration of his sight.
“That he is restricted to meeting with his Counsel in an
atmosphere devoid of private discussions with his Counsel; and he is oftentimes
denied perusal of legal documentation his Counsel brings to him to review.
“That he is not allowed to sleep with a pillow and this has
led to him developing acid reflux which comes with acute burning sensations in
his chest, chest pains and extreme difficulty in swallowing.
“That on the 17th July 2021, one of his Lawyers (the
undersigned Barrister Aloy Ejimakor) was detained and interrogated for hours by
the DSS when he came to the DSS on visitation to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Mazi Kanu,
who witnessed the detention before being led away was very distressed and
alarmed by this incident and he considers it a brazen act of intimidation of
his Counsel.
“That in the circumstance of the forgoing, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu
continues to have a persistent and heightened feeling of portent threat to his
overall well-being and safety within the DSS facility where he is currently
detained.”
Kanu, 54, was born on September 25, 1967, at Afaraukwu, Abia
State. He had earlier jumped bail in June 2018 before leaving for the United
Kingdom though he said that he fled because his life was no longer safe in
Nigeria.
After about three years abroad, the Attorney General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), at a press briefing
in Abuja on June 29, 2021, announced that the IPOB leader was re-arrested in a
foreign country and extradited to Nigeria.
His lawyers had said the IPOB leader was re-arrested in
Kenya and whisked to Nigeria.
Upon his re-arrest and extradition in June 2021, he was
re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako for terrorism-related charges and has
since been remanded in the DSS custody in Abuja.
Justice Nyako had adjourned the trial of Kanu to October 21,
2021, for continuation of hearing but the trial was adjourned till November 10,
2021. The case was again adjourned till January 19 and 20, 2022, for trial.
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