Court orders DSS DG to appear in person to explain why Nnamdi Kanu was denied access to lawyers 

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The Abuja Federal High Court has directed the Director of the Department of State Services, DSS, Adeola Ajayi, to appear before it and explain in person why the secret police had denied Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,

access to his lawyers.

In the “show cause notice”, which was signed by the court’s Registrar, Ajayi was ordered to show cause why he would not be committed to prison for disobeying the court’s earlier order that Kanu must be given access to his lawyers.

Recall that the Abuja Federal High Court had, on October 18, warned Ajayi that he would be liable for contempt if the DSS failed to allow lawyers access to Kanu in its custody.

However, DSS operatives reportedly disobeyed the order of the court on October 23,  and barred Kanu’s lead counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, and other members of the legal team from having access to Kanu, who has been in detention at a DSS facility in Abuja.

Ejimakor, on Friday, disclosed the latest notice from the court in a statement,  insisting that the DSS DG was acting on the legal advice from its counsel, Asiwaju Adegboyega Awomolo.

“Yesterday, the Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja issued a judicial process against Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi (the Director-General of State Security Services) to show cause why he should not be committed to prison for his disobedience of court order concerning visitations to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by his lawyers,” Ejimakor said in the statement.

“The Notice which is signed by the Registrar of Federal High Court, Abuja, states, inter alia: “Take Notice that the Defendant will apply to this court for an order for your committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of this court made on the 20th day of May, 2024”. By this Notice, Mr. Ajayi will be required to personally appear in Court to answer for himself.

“This Notice was triggered by the refusal of Mr. Ajayi to retrace his steps after he was, on 18th October 2024, issued a judicial warning (by the Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja) on the penal consequences of his persistent disobedience of the court-ordered Counsel visitation to Mazi Kanu.

“In particular, on 23rd October 2024, acting on the instructions and orders of Mr. Ajayi, armed officers of the DSS barricaded Mazi Kanu’s lawyers (Aloy Ejimakor and Mandela Umegborogu) from having access to Mazi Kanu on a routine visitation aimed at discussing his case with him and ascertaining his general wellbeing. It was the contemplation of this judicial Notice that made us to embargo any official press statement on this matter until this moment.

“It is self-evident that Mr. Ajayi is acting on the legal advice emanating from their private Counsel, Asiwaju Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), who is holding the fiat of the Attorney-General of the Federation (Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN).

“In addition to the said legal advice, Chief Awomolo had on behalf of AGF Fagbemi and the Federal Government filed an application (on 7th October 2024) before the Court, stating that the recusal of Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako from this case has invalidated all the Orders made by her in the case.

“In rebuttal, we filed a process, stating that if the Orders made by Justice Nyako are now – by virtue of her recusal – null and void, then the order of remand/detention of Mazi Kanu which was also made by her has become null and void, thus rendering Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention unconstitutional.

“Therefore, standing on this Attorney-General’s evident nullification of all the orders made by Justice Nyako in this case, including the order upon which Mazi Kanu remains in incarceration, we hereby call on the Federal Government to follow their logic by freeing Mazi Kanu immediately because his detention no longer has the backing of a valid court order.

“To be sure, it is impermissible for the Federal Government to invalidate the order on Counsel visitation to Mazi Kanu and insist at the same time that the order by which he is detained is still valid.

“In other words, it is wrong and unconstitutional for the Federal Government (or the DSS) to cherry-pick which orders it will obey and the ones it will disobey. No sane society anchored on rule of law should tolerate this.

“This latest interference with Mazi Kanu’s constitutional right of unfettered access to his lawyers underscores the case we have been making in Court and in public that continuing to detain Mazi Kanu at the DSS constitutes a permanent institutional hindrance to any prospect of garnering him a fair trial.

“This is the reason we had – as a panacea – initiated vigorous applications to either restore Mazi Kanu’s bail, transfer him to prison custody or to home detention, where such unconstitutional restrictions are known to be absent.

“Like we had indicated in the recent past, no criminal trial can ever happen when the conditions of detention or the locale of custody of the defendant is fraught with man-made hindrances to the adequate preparation of the defendant for his defense, particularly access to the lawyers that are conducting his defense.

“This is an irreducible minimum strictly demanded by the Nigerian Constitution and pertinent international human rights conventions and treaties Nigeria ratified.”

Furthermore, Ejimakor insisted that Kanu’s trial must follow due legal and constitutional proceses.

“Accordingly, we hereby reiterate our enduring determination and professional commitment to ensuring that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu can never be subjected to a trial that is manifestly against the tenets of the Constitution and statutes that guarantee every defendant an unhindered access to lawyers of his choice,” he said.

“To yield will amount to a grave miscarriage of justice that will forever live in infamy.

“Thus, as it stands today and by the sheer misconducts of the prosecution, any trial whilst Mazi Nnamdi Kanu remains in the custody of the State Security Services (DSS) has become impossible. And going by the current stance of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s his continued detention has become extrajudicial to boot.”