Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lead counsel for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has said that the Department of State Services (DSS) has refused to obey court’s order granting his client maximum comfort in detention, including change of clothing.
Recall that Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja had on December 2, 2021 ordered that the detainee should not be discriminated against in the custody of the DSS.
She also ordered that the IPOB leader should be given maximum comfort possible in detention, including change of clothing, free practice of his Jewish faith, access to his Jewish religious materials, receiving any visitor of his choice as well as mingling freely with other inmates in DSS custody.
However, Ejiofor disclosed in a statement issued on Tuesday that the DSS has continued to treat the court’s orders with contempt.
He said he visited Kanu in DSS custody on Monday (yesterday) and that the orders made by the court on December 2, 2021, the DSS continued to flout and ignore them.
“We were informed by our client – Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu that none of the pronouncement made by the Court on the 2nd of December 2021 has been obeyed by the lawless DSS. They have unrepentantly continued to treat the Orders of the Court with greatest disdain.
“Our client – Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu further informed us that he had not eaten anything since Sunday, apparently being punished because we dared to complain to the court about the harsh condition under which he is being held in custody. But, very, unfortunately, this should be the height of their reckless affront to the orders of court.
“At the time Her Lordship made these far-reaching orders in open court, I did not mince words in bringing to the attention of the court that the operatives of the DSS will flout these orders, pursuant to which the court specifically directed me to come back to her with these facts if her order is flouted by the detaining authority,” he said in a statement entitled ‘Update On today’s visit to our indefatigable client – Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS) Abuja’.
He said IPOB leader’s legal team would be approaching the court immediately with the development, which he described as “totally unacceptable, grossly condemnable, and intolerable.”
Ejiofor maintained that Kanu had not been convicted for committing any crime adding that he is still presumed innocent of every allegation against him.
“The detaining authority (DSS) is an Agency clearly established by instrumentality of the laws and should operate within the confines of the same laws establishing them, and should not be seen as a lawless entity, which unfortunately is what they represent in practice,” he added.
