ABUJA– The incarcerated leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, requested access to his medical records, but the Department of State Services, or DSS, has moved the Federal High Court in Abuja to reject this request.

Kanu also requested a mandamus order in the lawsuit he filed through Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN’s legal team, to compel the security agency to give him unrestricted access to his private physicians

However, the DSS’s attorney, Mr. A. M. Danlami, disputed the court’s authority to approve the motion when the case was heard on Tuesday.

The security service had previously submitted a preliminary objection and a counter-affidavit to contest the legitimacy of Kanu’s lawsuit, Danlami informed the court.

The DSS’s legal representative insisted that Kanu has been receiving sufficient medical care while being held and said that he had provided a meal plan that reflected the IPOB leader’s preferences for food.

The DSS lawyer further attached an Exhibit he said would show the court that the detained Applicant was “dutifully and clinically on his routine medication.”
“We, therefore, urge this honorable court to dismiss this suit in the interest of justice and national security,” Danlami added.

While arguing the case in court, Prof. Ozekhome, SAN, claimed that his client’s health had significantly worsened and accused the DSS of forbidding him from getting a second opinion.

He testified before the court that a specialist physician hired by the security agency had issued a dire warning that the IPOB might not survive if denied access to high-quality medical care.

“All we are saying is, let this young man not die. They told us that they took his medical report to South Africa. But till date, we have not seen anything.

“Now they are talking about conducting ear surgery on him. The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that a man should be alive to be able to stand trial.

“This case has taken international colouration and this court can save this country this opprobrium by ordering them to release his medical records.

“We have equally attached certified true copy of the judgment of a high court in Umuahia which awarded 500 Million damages for the extra-ordinary rendition of the Applicant from Kenya.

“We humbly seek my lords intervention in this matter. We are seeking solace for this young man who has been beaten blue and black, with no one to stand up for him apart from this court.

“His doctor has gone there two times but they refused him entry. But here they are, asking for reliefs from this court when they have not obeyed a subsisting order of this same court.

“They cannot come before this temple of justice with soiled hands to seek equitable remedy.

“Moreover, my learned friend is missing the entire point. We are not here on the issue of whether they are feeding him or not.

“All we are saying is, let the treatment they claim that he is receiving, be subjected to a review by an independent physician of his choice,” Ozekhome, SAN, added.

Justice Binta Nyako decided to defer the case until July 20 before rendering a decision.

In the lawsuit designated FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2341/2022, Kanu had said specifically that he would require his doctors to undertake a separate assessment to determine his real condition of health.

He is praying the court for an order, granting him leave to, “apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to allow the Applicant unhindered access to his medical doctors to enable them conduct an independent examination of his present deteriorating health condition, as earlier ordered by the Federal High Court, Abuja, coram, Hon. Justice B.F.M. Nyako, on the 21st day of October, 2021; and as required by the express provisions of section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017”.

As well as, “an order of this Honourable Court granting leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to avail the Applicant with all his medical records, from the 29th day of June, 2021, till date”.

Kanu listed some of the records he would need from the DSS, such as his admission records, medical and clinical notes, nursing notes, observation charts and documentation throughout treatment or a hospital stay, laboratory test results, pharmaceutical records, radiological scans, images, and reports, blood transfusion records, physiotherapy and rehabilitative treatment records, clinical findings, as well as records of diagnosis and prescribed treatments.

On the basis for his plea, Kanu stated that trial Justice Nyako had ruled on October 21, 2021, granting him access to three people of his choosing, including his physicians.

According to Kanu, under section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act of 2017, anyone who has been arrested, detained, or is undergoing custodial investigation has the right to request a physical and psychological examination after questioning from a doctor of his choosing who is independent and qualified. The examination must take place without interference from the police or security forces.

“The Respondents have repeatedly denied the Applicant access to medical doctors of his choice to independently examine him, contrary to the order of the court made on the 21st October, 2021; and the express provisions of Section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017”, he added.

Kanu testified before the court in a verifying affidavit that he had attended a specialist cardiologist once a week for medical evaluation and treatment before he was caught, kidnapped in Kenya, and unusually returned to Nigeria.

“Medical Reports containing the medical history of the Applicant as was issued by medical specialists managing the Applicant before his abduction in Kenya and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria are hereby attached and variously marked as Exhibits MNK 3, MNK 4 and MNK 5.

“That notwithstanding the fact that the Applicant has been discharged by the appellate court and his further detention prohibited, the Applicant is still being held in solitary confinement in the custody of the Respondents, where he is exposed to daily mental and psychological torture and degradation of his human person”.

Kanu alleged that upon his “abduction” in Kenya, he was subjected to various forms of brutal torture and inhuman treatment and degradation, all of which worsened his health condition, pursuant to which he suffered a mild cardiac arrest before he was “smuggled back into Nigeria”.

“The Applicant’s health condition has continued to take a downward spiral since then.

“That various medical personnel that attended to the Applicant whilst in custody, had repeatedly informed him that they could not ascertain the reason for the depletion of potassium in the Applicant’s blood.

“That on various occasions, the medical personnel brought by the Respondents took the Applicant’s blood sample and allegedly transported the same to South Africa for screening and up till the present, there is no end in sight for their trial-and-error medicare.

“That all medical experts that have so far attended to this complex health situation of the Applicant failed to medically fathom the explanation for the continued failure of various treatments so far given to the Applicant, hence their inquiries as to whether the Applicant may have been injected with a dangerous substance by those that abducted him in Kenya before being forcibly smuggled into Nigeria.

“That the medical personnel attending to the Applicant in the custody of the Respondents are oblivious of the cause of the Applicant’s health condition and are basically using the Applicant as a guinea pig while carrying out a trial-and-error exercise, as they keep changing his drugs and increasing the dosage without any improvement whatsoever in his health condition. Attached and marked as Exhibit MNK 6 is a copy of the Applicant’s medical report issued by the Respondents.

“That the full medical history of the Applicant as contained in his Medical file with the detaining authority were deliberately suppressed, as the facts of the speedy depletion in his potassium content was clearly deleted from the medical report which the Respondents issued to the Applicant.

“That the Applicant’s doctor- Dr. CFine Okorochukwu, who had gone to visit him on the 29th August, 2022, and 1st and 15th September, 2022, respectively, was denied access to him, by the Respondents, in flagrant disregard to the Order of the trial court, made on the 21st day of October, 2021, which order directed that the Applicant should be allowed access to three persons of his choice, which persons includes his doctors. Attached and marked as Exhibit MNK8 are copies of the letters forwarding the name of the Doctor to the Respondents.

“That following the continued refusal of the Respondents to allow the Applicant access to his medical doctor, on the 12th of December, 2022, the Applicant through his lead Counsel- Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN – wrote to the Respondents and demanded that the Applicant be given unhindered access to his own medical doctors; and further, for the Applicant’s comprehensive medical records. A copy of the said letter is hereby attached and marked as Exhibit MNK9.

“That the Respondents roundly ignored the Applicant’s request to be availed of his medical records, and access to his doctors,” the deponent averred.

You may recall that on October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja released Kanu after dismissing a 15-count terrorist indictment the Federal Government had filed against him.

However, on October 28, 2022, the appellate court issued a stay of execution of its judgment while awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling on an appeal that FG had filed.