By Adadainfo
The special counsel to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Monday, demanded the immediate release of Kanu from the custody of the DSS.
Ejimakor made the demand in a letter he addressed to Yusuf Magaji Bichi, director-general, State Security Service.
In the letter captioned ‘Re: Demand for the Immediate Release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Detention in view of the Judgement of the Federal High Court in Suit No FHC/UM/CS/30/2022’, Ejimakor requested Kanu’s release ‘in compliance with the ruling that our client’s continued detention in Abuja is unconstitutional’.
Our correspodent reports that Kanu has been detained in the DSS headquarters since July last year after being forcely brought to Nigeria from Kenya, which the high court described as extraordinary rendition, having not followed international rules and in violation of his fundamental human rights.
However, the federal government has refused to release him despite other judgements that ordered his release, including the Oct 13 2022 ruling of the Appeal Court, Abuja, which acquitted Kanu.
Ejimakor recalled to the DSS boss that ‘on 26th October 2022, the Federal High Court entered a judgment against the continued detention of our client at the headquarters of State Security Services in Abuja.”
The court had ruled that, “The manner of arrest and detention of the applicant in Kenya, his continued detention in Abuja, his subjection to physical and mental trauma by the respondents, the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to the applicant amount to a brazing violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to dignity of his person and threat to life under Section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).”
According to Ejimakor, on 27th October 2022, he and a lawyer from the Umuahia (Abia State) office of the State Security Services were each availed with Certified True Copies of the judgment and the judgment Order by the Registry of the Federal High Court, which he said ‘affirmatively put your (DSS boss’) office on record Notice of the Judgment’.
“That was thirty-one days ago, yet your office has failed or otherwise refused to release our client, which is a flagrant disobedience of the judgment.
“Section 287(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) provides that: ‘The decisions of the Federal High Court, a High Court and of all other courts established by this Constitution shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by other courts of law with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Federal High Court, a High Court and those other courts, respectively,” the letter added.
He told the DSS boss that, “It is mandatory for your office, being the detaining authority, to enforce the said judgment by releasing our client in compliance with the ruling that our client’s ‘continued detention in Abuja’ is unconstitutional.”
Ejimakor told our correspodent that ‘failure to comply with this demand will, without further notice, trigger prompt judicial measures to enforce compliance’.
