Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has cried out that his condition has worsened under the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), as his request for an independent medical examination has been denied by the service.
In a statement by his lawyers, Aloy Ejimakor and Ifeanyi Ejofor, Kanu said despite a court order, the condition of his detention at the DSS continues to be harsh, degrading and inhumane.
The IPOB leader also lamented that he is restricted to meeting with his counsel in an atmosphere devoid of privacy and denied perusal of legal documentation his counsel brings to him for review.
He further alleged that his lawyers were being harassed by the DSS, stating that Ejimakor was detained on July 17, 2021 and interrogated for hours when he visited him.
Kanu, who witnessed the detention before being led away, was distressed and alarmed by the incident and he considered it a brazen act of intimidation of his counsel.
He alleged he was confined to a tiny cell 23 hours of the day without access to sunlight and any social interactions while alleging that any detainee who greets him when 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.
“Our client, Kanu, has instructed us to make the following information public. 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.
“He further stated that he is solitarily confined to a very tiny cell 23 hours of the day without access to sunlight and any social interaction whatsoever. He believes this is aimed at inflicting extreme emotional and mental distress on him and breaking him psychologically.
Because of this, detainees have resorted to avoiding him and exchanging salutations with him, not to talk of any other form of social interactions.
“That since the Nigerian government extraordinarily detained 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 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 (November 10, 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.
“Kanu disclosed that 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 his abduction.
“He has reason to believe the said injected substance is depleting the potassium content of his body, thus causing him constipation, a feeling of skipped heart beats, palpitations, fatigue, muscle weakness/spasms and numbness.
“That in the circumstance of the forgoing, Kanu continues to have a persistent and heightened feeling of portent threat to his overall well-being and safety within the DSS facility where he is currently detained.”
