By Olusegun Olanrewaju
Detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi, Kanu, has cried out at the inhuman treatment he alleges is being meted out to him by the operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The confined IPOB leader, his lawyers said in a desperate plea, is in solitary confinement “without seeing sunlight for 23 hours a day”.
It was further alleged in a release yesterday entitled, ‘Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention condition at the DSS amounts to torture’, that Kanu has not been allowed to change his clothes since he was released in June.
According to the lawyers, Aloy Ejimakor and Ifeanyi Ejiofor, these inhuman treatments and others are being meted out as punishment on the pro-Biafra agitator, adding that “any detainee that exchanges pleasantries with him is condemned to a solitary cell or maximum-security punishment.”
The lawyers also alleged that the DSS officials did not allow Kanu to even have a new pair of glasses, “since they broke into pieces the ones he was using during his abduction in Kenya”.
The statement read, “Our client, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has instructed us to make the following information public.
“That despite a court order to the contrary, the condition of his detention at the DSS headquarters in Abuja continues to be harsh, degrading, and inhumane.
“That he is solitary confinement 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.”
They also averred 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; 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 of 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.
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“That he has, to date, been denied access to the British Consul despite her repeated requests to see him; and on the day of his last court appearance (10th November 2021), the British Consul who was in court to observe the proceedings was intimidated by DSS officers, who restricted her from coming close to Kanu.
“That, to date, the DSS has denied his repeated requests for an independent medical examination to determine the extent of damage done to his body by a suspected substance he may have been injected with during this abduction and extraordinary rendition. He has reason to believe that the said injected substance is depleting the potassium content of his body, thus causing him constipation, a feeling of skipped heartbeats, palpitations, fatigue, muscle weakness/spasms, and numbness.”
