The DSS said the court can't save me - Kanu
Detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and Director
of Biafra Radio, Dr Nnamdi Kanu, has said that state security
officials told him that the courts could not save him. Kanu said through
one of his lawyers, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, that operatives of the
Department of State Security (DSS) told him while he was in their
custody that both the courts in Nigeria and the British government
cannot save him in his bid to regain his freedom.
Kanu, who is facing a six-count treason charge, asserted that he is a
victim of persecution by the Federal Government and its agents which
have continued to violate his human rights through his prolonged
incarceration. Through one of his lawyers, the IPOB leader expressed
his readiness to face trial, adding that what he wants is a “fair trial
and not persecution.” In a statement by the counsel, Mr. Ejiofor,
which was made available to The AUTHORITY, Kanu said he was wrongly
arrested and detained.
Kanu has already filed a suit before the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice against the violation of his
rights.
In the fundamental enforcement rights suit he filed before the ECOWAS
Court, Kanu prayed for requisite redress under the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights and other International Conventions to which
Nigeria is a signatory.
He said: “We were reliably informed by Nnamdi Kanu that his persecutors
told him in the course of their interrogation that even the British
government cannot secure his freedom, as the courts should go ahead and
make orders they like but none would be obeyed,” Ejiofor said.
It was the submissions of his counsel that the unlawful detention of his
client from October 14, 2015 till January 20, 2016, without any lawful
order of the court, and in flagrant disobedience of orders of courts of
competent jurisdiction, all directing for his unconstitutional release
and discharge, amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental human
rights.
Ejiofor, who chronicled all the alleged breaches of Kanu’s fundamental human rights, recounted that the Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja specified in the First Information Report originally filed against him, had discharged his client of all bogus and frivolous allegations against him but “the Department of State Security that dragged him to court refused to obey the orders of the same court”.