By Adadareporters
AN Abuja Federal High Court has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to allow the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, access to a medical doctor of his choice.
The court, presided by Binta Nyako, gave the order on Thursday, July 20. Kanu, who had been in the custody of the DSS, had informed the court that he requires urgent ear surgery.
In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2341/2022, Kanu prayed to the court to compel the DSS to allow him access to his personal doctors.
Kanu noted that the trial judge, Nyako, had on October 21, 2021, ordered that he be allowed access to three persons of his choice, including his medical doctors.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Nyako ordered that all Kanu’s medical records be made available to him. Nyako held that the objections the DSS raised against Kanu’s request lacked merit.
The judge also ordered the secret police to also monitor, record and seal all medical sessions administered to the IPOB leader for security purposes.
She dismissed the DSS’s preliminary objections challenging the application on the grounds that Kanu has the right to medical services even in detention.
According to the judge, Kanu was constitutionally entitled to access both the records he requested and the medical doctors of his choice.
Kanu, who has been in the custody of the DSS since June 2021, is facing terrorism-related charges.
In October 2022, the Federal Government was ordered to pay Kanu N500 as damages for his illegal abduction and repatriation from Kenya, which the court said violated his fundamental human rights.
The order was made by a Federal High Court in Umuahia presided by E. N Anyadike. The court also ordered the Federal Government to return Kanu to Kenya from where he was forcefully returned to Nigeria in 2021.
Anyadike held that the Federal Government failed to disprove Kanu’s claims that he was arrested, blindfolded, tortured and chained to the ground for eight days in Kenya before his extradition to Nigeria.
Kanu had, through one of his lawyers, Aloy Ejimakor, challenged his repatriation from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021. The judgment came on the heels of an Appeal Court ruling which freed the IPOB leader.
The ICIR reported that a three-member appellate court panel on October 13, 2022, struck out all the remaining seven charges against Kanu.
The ruling followed Nyako’s judgment in April 2022, which struck out eight of the 15 counts in the charge preferred against the IPOB leader by the Nigerian government.
Nyako, however, held that Kanu had some questions to answer in counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 15 of the charge. But Kanu appealed to quash the remaining seven counts for lack of merit.
In its ruling, the appellate court agreed with Kanu’s counsel that the IPOB leader was illegally abducted and extra-ordinarily renditioned from Kenya to Nigeria, against international and local laws.
Although the Court of Appeal had discharged Kanu in October, the Federal Government claimed that he was only discharged and not acquitted.
On November 3, 2022, Kanu filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against a ruling of the Court of Appeal which halted his release from the Department of State Service (DSS) custody.
The Supreme Court, on Thursday, April 27, 2023, adjourned hearing in the appeal filed by Kanu to challenge his continued detention.
In a related development, Kanu’s lawyer, Aloysius Ejimakor, wrote to the European Union (EU) in November 2022, stating that his client’s medical condition was worsening.
Ejimakor wrote the letter to the EU on November 16, 2022, and posted a copy on his Twitter page.
icirnig.org
