Court takes action on Nnamdi Kanu’s suit against DSS

 

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that has been declared illegal, filed a lawsuit against the State Security Services (SSS), which the Federal High Court of Abuja, again deferred on Monday.

The SSS is detaining a separatist leader, and he is requesting a court order for the agency to give him unrestricted access to his doctor and other professionals.

Lawyers’ tardiness caused the hearing in the case to be postponed on May 3.

Bita Nyako, the judge, expressed her displeasure with the attorneys’ behavior and issued a warning that she would not put up with any further delays in the proceedings. Finally, she scheduled the hearing on Monday.

Ms. Nykao, however, was not there on Monday, according to reports that she was on business.

Court officials then fixed 20 June for the adoption of final addresses. Parties are expected to make their closing arguments at the June hearing, after which the judge will fix a date for judgement.

Mr Kanu sued SSS and its Director-General in the suit, which seeks a court order granting him unhindered access to his medical doctors in detention.

The SSS filed an objection against the suit, urging the court to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction.

It argued that there was a subsisting judgement of a sister court delivered by a now-retired judge, Taiwo Taiwo, on 3 June 2022, which, the agency said, had already issued an order allowing the IPOB leader access to his personal physician.

The SSS said Mr Kanu’s fresh case was similar to the earlier one and that the IPOB leader also had an appeal relating to the judgement pending at the Court of Appeal.

The IPOB leader, through his lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, incessantly complains about his client’s poor state of health in SSS custody.

Mr Kanu has a pending application at the Supreme Court seeking an order either granting him bail or transferring him to the correction centre for easy access to his lawyers and physicians.

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 and was later charged over his separatist campaigns for the independent Biafra Republic, comprising mainly the Igbo-dominated South-east region.

The Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the charges against the IPOB leader in a judgement last year but later allowed SSS to continue detaining him, pending the federal government’s appeal at the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has fixed 14 September for a hearing in the case.

Ms Nyako presided over the criminal trial against Mr Kanu until the charges were dismissed by the Court of Appeal last year.