The lead Counsel of Nnamdi Kanu, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to caution the Department of State Services, DSS.
Ejiofor said Buhari should order the DSS to obey court order over the handling of Kanu.
He said the secret police should be told not to detain Kanu in solitary confinement.
Speaking after his routine visit to Kanu at the DSS headquarters in Abuja, yesterday, Ejiofor said the Buhari-led executive should stop interfering in Kanu’s trial.
The lead counsel also insisted that the executive arm of government was interfering in the trial of the IPOB leader.
Ejiofor lamented that the judiciary was not independent in Kanu’s trial.
Ejiofor said in the statement that: “What we are earnestly asking for is nothing else, but for the executive arm of Government led by the President of the FRN, to desist from further interfering in the judicial process.
“We can authoritatively confirm to the World that the executive arm of the Government of the FRN, ably led by the President is gravely and effectively interfering in our Client’s judicial proceedings.
“To demonstrate good faith and impartiality, we beckon on the President of the FRN to first caution the DSS which answers solely to him, to obey all Court Orders as it relates to the management of this case.
“Our Client, Kanu should not be detained in solitary confinement (which is an act of torture) in the custody of the same Agency accusing him of committing sundry offences and expect fair hearing. Hence, there is no independence of the judiciary as far as this case is concerned, and the President of the FRN is fully aware of this.”
Kanu has been locked up by the secret police after he was rearrested in June 2021.
The IPOB leader was believed to have been arrested in Kenya and repatriated to Nigeria to further his trial for treason before the Justice Binta Nyako-led Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja.
Justice Nyako had granted him bail in 2017 but he fled to Europe where he continued his agitation for Nigeria’s secession, and the actualization of Biafra.
