Olayomi Koiki
Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, special counsel for Nnamdi Kanu, the illegally-detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has expressed concern over Kanu’s deteriorating health.
Kanu is currently experiencing shortness of breath, low blood pressure, and general malaise, Ejimakor said.
The attorney stated that Kanu requested medical attention from his personal physician, and subsequently, his legal team submitted a formal request to Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS) to grant access to Kanu’s doctor. However, when the doctor arrived at the DSS headquarters on Tuesday, he was denied access to the self determination activist.
“Yesterday, during our visitation with Nnamdi Kanu, we found him ill, with shortness of breath, low BP & general malaise,” he said.
“For this reason, he requested to see his Doctor & we submitted a letter in this regard. Today, the Doctor arrived at the DSS but was denied access to Nnamdi Kanu.”
In a message sent to investigative news outlet, SaharaReporters, Ejimakor said, “As a background, the DSS is well aware that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is susceptible to potassium deficiency which affects the function of the heart.
“This problem was diagnosed by DSS doctors some three years ago and they confessed to their lack of the expertise to treat the problem, which in all probability is the cause of Nnamdi Kanu’s current illness.
“This is no doubt very serious and deadly to boot. The readings of the electronic heart monitor supplied by the DSS have been recording low pressure levels for nearly nine days in a row without any medical intervention to ascertain whether the blood potassium level is within the clinically acceptable range.”
Kanu is facing trial on terrorism charges levelled against by then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over his call and agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra. Kanu was extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya in June 2021 by former President Buhari’s government and has remained in detention since then.
Mr Kanu’s initial arrest in 2015 triggered protests by his supporters.
In 2017, Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja granted Kanu bail.
Upon his release, a military invasion of his ancestral home in Umuahia, Abia State, in September 2017, forced into exile, hence he did not attend his trial on the next scheduled date and thereafter. From then till June 2021 when he was abducted from Kenya and was subjected to “extraordinary rendition”, and brought back to Nigeria, there has been a robust public debate as to whether he jumped bail or not.
But, the Appeal Court had discharged and acquitted Kanu of all terrorism charges. This judgment was later overturned by the Supreme Court which transferred the case back to the Federal High Court.
Kanu’s attorney, Aloy Ejimakor, in January, clarified that the Supreme Court had settled the controversy on whether Kanu jumped bail or not.
The attorney said the Supreme Court also clarified that Kanu’s bail “should not have been revoked”.
In the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment delivered in December 2023, the apex court declared that Kanu did not jump bail.
IPOB wants a group of states in the south-east of Nigeria, which mostly comprises the Igbo ethnic group, to break away from the country and form an independent nation called Biafra.
In 1967 Igbo leaders declared independence for the state of Biafra, but after a civil war, which led to the deaths of millions of people, the self-determination movement was defeated.
But the idea of Biafra has never gone away and despite arrests of his members, Mr Kanu’s movement hasseen a recent swell in its numbers.
All peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development, according to the United Nations Charter.
Essentially, the right to self-determination is the right of a people to determine its own destiny. In particular, the principle allows a people to choose its own political status and to determine its own form of economic, cultural and social development. Exercise of this right can result in a variety of different outcomes ranging from political independence through to full integration within a state.
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