Uzoamaka Ejezie, popularly called Mama Biafra, has filed a fundamental rights suit against the Department of State Security (DSS) before the Abia State High Court over her arrest and detention last year.

Mrs Ejezie was arrested during a court appearance of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, in Abuja on May 18, 2022. She was not released until August 2022.

In the suit filed on January 13, 2023, on her behalf by IPOB counsel, Aloy Ejimakor; Mama Biafra wants the court to declare that her arrest, detention and mistreatment for four months and the DSS’s refusal to produce her before a court was illegal and in violation of her personal liberty and right to fair hearing.

The respondents are the Director, DSS, Abia State Command and Director-General, DSS, Abuja headquarters.

She also wants the court to give: “An order of injunction restraining and prohibiting the respondents from further arresting the applicant and/or requiring the applicant to continue to be reporting or presenting herself monthly or otherwise to the respondents’ offices in Umuahia, Abia State.

“An order mandating and compelling the respondents to issue an official letter of apology to the applicant for the infringement of her fundamental rights; and publication of said letter of apology in three (3) national dailies.

“An order mandating and compelling the respondents to pay the sum of N1 billion to the respondent, being monetary damages claimed by the applicant against the respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property and other damages suffered by the applicant as a result of the infringements of applicant’s fundamental rights by the respondents.

“And for such order or further order(s) as the honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of this suit.”

Mama Biafra is widely regarded as Kanu’s foster mother. (TheNiche)

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