The legal team of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has lamented that they have been repeatedly denied access to their client.
Kanu has been detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) since the extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021.
The legal team led by Barrister Aloy Ejimakor raised the alarm in a press briefing, saying the DSS not only denied them access to Kanu but constantly seized every legal document they took to the IPOB leader.
According to the lawyers, the DSS personnel scan and photocopy the documents and in most cases, never return them to the owner.
Kanu’s constitutional right as provided by Section 36(6) paragraph C of the Constitution has been violated.
During a press briefing, one of Kanu’s lawyers, Barrister Jude Ugwuanyi said, “We are ready to defend Nnamdi Kanu. The offences for which he is standing trial are not such that there is no defence. We have strong defences but our fear is the way and manner we are being denied access to him.
“As lawyers, we are entitled to meeting with our client, Nnamdi Kanu, liaising with him, discussing and hearing from him what defence he has against those charges.
“But each time we make an effort towards seeing him, we are restrained by the DSS. I’m a victim.
“The allegations against Nnamdi Kanu are personal allegations against him and he is the only person that can tell his lawyers what he did and what he did not do and what line of defences he could rely on.
“That is why Section 36(6) paragraph c says that as an accused person, he is entitled to a lawyer of his choice.
“In an attempt to utilize that opportunity, we go to him to hear from him and get his line of defences because we were not there when he is said to have committed these offences. But we are not allowed to liaise with him.”
Ugwuanyi further said, “If we go with documents for him to tell us his reactions to those documents, those documents are seized from us. They are scanned, photocopied and in the long run, we may not even get those documents back.
“If we have something the charges said he did and ask Kanu for his reactions, we are not allowed to take the documents to him. They are seized from us and if we want to take notes, the DSS insists on a limited number of pages we can write.
“These things affect the facilities the constitution says he is entitled to. That is our fear. Where we are not allowed access to him or even when we are allowed a little access to him, we are not allowed to get documents, information or get him sign documents for change of counsel, we are constrained to say that this is not how it is done elsewhere.
“Where two parties are contesting over a case in the court of law and there is no equality, there is discrimination, somebody has the upper hand and it is being allowed, that kind of prosecution is not done in any other country.”
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