Kanu requests to be transferred from DSS custody to prison

 

Detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has filed an application before the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to be transferred from custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, to the prisons in Kuje.

Kanu, in the application filed through his team of lawyers, led by Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, decried the fact that he had been denied access to his doctors.

The IPOB leader said he might die in custody of the DSS, if nothing was done to urgently address his deteriorating health condition.

He specifically applied for an order of the trial court, “directing the transfer of the applicant from the custody of the National Headquarters of the Department of State Service, DSS, to the Nigerian Correctional Service Centre in Kuje, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, where he was initially detained before he was granted bail pending the determination of the charge.

“An order of this honourable court directing the defendant/applicant’s custodian, to grant access to his medical experts/doctors to carry out a comprehensive independent medical examination of the defendant/applicant’s health condition/status, while in custody.”

It will be recalled that Kanu whose whereabouts were hitherto unknown, was on June 27 returned to the country after he was arrested from a yet-to-be confirmed African country.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, had insisted that Kanu was lawfully “intercepted” as a result of a collaborative effort of various security agencies in the country.

However, Kanu’s lawyer, Ejiofor, disclosed that his client was on June 18, illegally arrested at the airport and detained for eight days by Kenya’s Special Police Force before he was eventually handed over to their Nigerian counterpart.

Ejiofor alleged that the IPOB leader was tortured and subjected to various forms of inhuman treatment in Kenya, a situation he said worsened his health condition.

Trial Justice Binta Nyako had upon Kanu’s return to Nigeria, ordered his remand in DSS custody, even as his trial on treasonable felony charge, which was initially fixed for October, was brought forward to July 26.

Meanwhile, in the fresh application, Kanu alleged that he had been “subjected to mental and psychological torture” by the DSS, saying it would be in the interest of justice for the court to order his transfer to the Nigerian Correctional Service Centre, which he described as “an impartial facility that had no interest whatsoever” in the outcome of his trial.