DSS flouts judge’s order as Nnamdi Kanu appears in court in same attire

Despite the order of Justice of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Justice Binta Nyako, that the Department of State Services should allow Nnamdi Kanu to have a change of clothes, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra yet again appeared in court on Wednesday with the same designer wears he wore when he was re-arrested and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021.

Earlier, Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), on Tuesday drew the attention of the court to the treatment his client was being subjected to in the custody of the DSS.

Justice Nyako on Tuesday reiterated the order and asked the secret police to allow Kanu some comfort in custody.

“I don’t want to see him in these clothes again. This one is almost off-white. Also, make sure that you allow him to exercise,” Nyako had said.

But surprisingly, the DSS disordered the order of the judge as the secret police produced Kanu in court on Wednesday clad in the same attire. The secessionist leader is a holder of Nigerian and British passports. He had earlier jumped bail in June 2018 before leaving for the United Kingdom though he said that he fled because his life was no longer safe in Nigeria.

After about three years abroad, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), at a press briefing in Abuja on June 29, 2021, announced that the IPOB leader was re-arrested in a foreign country and extradited to Nigeria.

But one of Kanu’s lawyers, Ejiofor Ifeanyi, had said the IPOB leader was re-arrested in Kenya and whisked to Nigeria.

Upon his re-arrest and extradition in June 2021, he was re-arraigned before Justice Nyako for terrorism-related charges and has since been remanded in the DSS custody in Abuja. Justice Nyako had on Tuesday adjourned the trial of Kanu to January 19, 2022 (today).