Aloy Ejimakor, counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, on Saturday said his client needed heart surgery for a valve replacement.

He urged the Federal Government to release the detained agitator so he can get medical attention.

Ejimakor tweeted a medical advice from Pink Rose Hospital Limited dated August 23, 2022 stating that Kanu has heart-related issue it described as life-threatening.

“The patient requires urgent surgical (internal heart surgery) intervention for tricuspid valve (heart valve) replacement,” the medical advice reads in part.

Ejimakor said: “For avoidance of any doubt, Nigerian government knew since August 2022 that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu requires surgery. Besides the court orders, this is enough to release him or accord him his right to independent medical care. It’s a universal norm.”

Kanu was re-arraigned on January 19 before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He pleaded not guilty to the 15-count terrorism charge filed against him by the Federal Government.

He filed a preliminary objection to the charge, praying the court to strike out or quash them, which the Court of Appeal agreed with.

On the same day, an Umuahia High Court in Abia State awarded N1billion damages to Kanu in a judgment on his fundamental rights suit.

Kanu was accused of making a broadcast “with intent to intimidate the population”, in which he “threatened that people will die, the whole world will standstill”.

He was also accused of issuing “a deadly threat” that anyone who flouted his sit-at-home order should write his/her Will, which resulted in a lockdown of the Southeast.

Kanu also professed himself to be a member and leader of IPOB, a proscribed organisation in Nigeria, contrary to and punishable under Section 16 of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.

He was said to have incited members of the public “to hunt and kill Nigerian security personnel and their families”.

The Federal Government said Kanu directed IPOB members “to manufacture bombs” and to “destroy public facilities”.

He also allegedly threatened the public not to come out on May 31, 2021, and directed them “to destroy public transport system in Lagos, resulting in major economic loss to the government”.

The prosecution said he “imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubullisiuzor in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State…a radio transmitter known as Tram SOL concealed in a container of used household items which you declared as used household items.”

The alleged offence, the prosecution said, is punishable under Section 1(2) (b) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act. 2013.

Kanu has been in the custody of the DSS since his rendition from Kenya. (Courtesy, excluding headline, The Nation)

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