According to Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyers, the Department of State Services (DSS) has been punishing detainees who interact with the Indigenous People of Biafra’s leader.
Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s lead lawyers, made the allegation in a joint statement signed yesterday, Nov. 18.
Kanu, according to the IPOB leader’s lawyer, told them to make the statement 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,” according to the statement titled “Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention condition at the DSS amounts to torture.”
“That he spends twenty-three (23) hours of each day alone in a very small cell, with no access to sunlight or any social interactions. He believes this is aimed at causing him extreme emotional and mental distress, as well as psychologically breaking him.
“As a punishment for exchanging simple greetings with him, any detainee who encounters him and greets him during the one hour he is allowed outside his cell is immediately placed in solitary confinement or transferred to maximum security. Detainees have resorted to avoiding him and exchanging salutations with him as a result, to say nothing of any other social interactions.
“Since his extraordinary rendition by the Nigerian government, he has not been permitted to change his clothes, and his Jewish prayer shawls and other religious materials brought to him by his counsel have been rejected and returned.
“That the DSS has refused to replace his corrective glasses (lenses), which were smashed to smithereens by Nigerian government agents during the violence they unleashed on him in Kenya while abducting him. As a result, his vision has rapidly deteriorated.
“That he is limited to meeting with his counsel in a setting that does not allow for private discussions; and that he is frequently denied access to legal documents that his counsel brings to him for review.
“He is not permitted to sleep with a pillow, which has resulted in acid reflux, which manifests itself as severe burning sensations in his chest, chest pains, and extreme difficulty swallowing.
“When one of his lawyers (the undersigned Barrister Aloy Ejimakor) went to the DSS on visitation to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on July 17, 2021, one of his lawyers (the undersigned Barrister Aloy Ejimakor) was detained and interrogated for hours by the DSS. Mazi Kanu, who was present during the detention before being led away, was distressed and alarmed by the incident, which he views as a brazen act of intimidation of his lawyer.
“That despite his repeated requests to see the British Consul, he has been denied access; and that on the day of Mazi Kanu’s last court appearance (10 November 2021), the British Consul who was in court to observe the proceedings was intimidated by DSS officers, who prevented him from approaching him.
“That the DSS has repeatedly denied his requests for an independent medical examination to determine the extent of damage to his body caused by a suspected substance he may have been injected with during this abduction and extraordinary rendition.” He has reason to believe that the injected substance is causing constipation, skipped heartbeats, palpitations, fatigue, muscle weakness/spasms, and numbness by depleting the potassium content of his body.
“In light of the foregoing, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu continues to experience a persistent and heightened sense of imminent threat to his overall well-being and safety within the DSS facility where he is currently detained.”
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