A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Tuesday, lambasted the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly denying Mazi Nnamdi Kanu access to his lawyers, contrary to court orders.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the actions of the secret police against the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) if verified, represents the highest manifestation of lawlessness and blatant disregard for the judiciary by the DSS.

According to media reports, the DSS, on Monday, and last Thursday, barred Kanu’s lawyers from meeting him in custody.

Special counsel for the IPOB leader, Aloy Ejimakor, said the DSS prevented them from meeting Kanu, an act, Ejimakor said, was in contravention of the order of Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja that Kanu should have access to his lawyers twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays).

Ejimakor said: “Last Thursday, we were not allowed visitation with Onyendu because, according to DSS, the “special squad” in charge of visitations went on “outside assignment.” They asked us to come on Monday (today). Today (Monday), we‘re at DSS. They’re telling us the same thing. We disagree.”

HURIWA condemned the alleged lawlessness and high-handedness of the secret police since the abduction of Kanu from Kenya in June 2021.

The group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Onwubiko, recalled that the secret police had been flouting the orders of Justice Nyako and the judge has not deemed it fit to hammer any sanction on the DSS.

“The judge had ordered that the DSS give Kanu maximum comfort in custody, including change of clothes, access and usage of his Jewish materials and other items of his faith as well as freedom to converse with other detainee in DSS custody in Abuja.

“But it is ridiculously shocking that the DSS continues to flout the orders of the judge with impunity and the judge sees no reason to slam a sanction on the secret police which is meant to uphold the law. The contempt application against the DG of DSS reportedly filed by the lawyers to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is said not to have been heard or even transmitted to any judge for adjudication, thereby triggering the suspicion that the Nigerian judiciary has surrendered her constitutional powers to the executive arm of government that commands and controls the DSS.

“The judge had also ruled that the DSS allow Kanu access to his lawyers and any person he deems fit to visit him but the failure to comply by the DSS has not attracted any sanction.

“The manner and mistreatment of Kanu in detention is bothersome. Kanu not being allowed to change his clothes because the DSS said he can’t put on Isi Agu a traditional clothes of the Igbo race, an explanation that flies in the face of reason and good conscience and questions the intention of the DSS in this utterly discriminatory policy that offends Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution. How come that DSS operatives wear babanriga of the Northerners and Western suits of foreign jurisdiction but is even heard arguing that wearing of the igbo native isi agu is offensive to the DSS?

“Journalists, activists and other persons monitoring the trial of Kanu have also been arrested and released after cocktails of harassment and being subjected to dehumanising conditions by hyperactive and overzealously lawless security agents.

“Justice Nyako must know that the failure of the DSS to obey the orders of her court looks like the crippling of the independence of the judiciary and offensive to Section 6 of the Nigerian Constitution. The denial of access to His lawyers seems to be the highest manifestation of lawlessness and arbitrariness which is a direct threat to judicial independence and infringes on his fundamental rights.

“HURIWA, thereby, calls for the monitoring of the prosecution by accredited credible non-governmental bodies and for the DSS to give access to Kanu’s family, lawyers and credible civil rights platforms that get the permission of the detainee and the DSS to visit and assess the situation of his detention.”

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