Malik Yahya/
Ifeanyi Ejiofor, counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has disclosed that the Department of State Services (DSS) prevented himself and Kanu’s American lawyer, Bruce Fein, from visiting him in detention.
Kanu, who is facing charges of treason, is currently being held by the DSS after he was rearrested and brought back to Nigeria to face trial.
Ejiofor, in a statement, today, said when the team went to the DSS office to visit their client yesterday, they were told that the official assigned to receive them was on a “special assignment”.
Ejiofor said the DSS gave the excuse despite a formal notification of the visit, and described the development as a violation of the court order.
The statement reads, “Following the arrival of Mr. Bruce Fein, a foremost American trained constitutional law lawyer and IPOB’s attorney in the United States of America, the game obviously took an interesting twist.
“Despite our formal notification to the Service, in line with the existing protocol, and in compliance with the court-ordered guideline, the officials of the Department of State Security Services came up with an excuse, ‘that the person assigned to receive us during yesterday’s visit was on A SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT’, and as such, the visit cannot be conducted.
“This is not only ridiculous but a clear violation of the Court Order on guideline for visiting our Client- Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“For the records, we have been consistently visiting Our Client on the specified days and time of the week, and there hasn’t been any time we were denied access to him on the ground that an individual assigned to receive us was not available.
“Needless to mention, that no one individual has been specifically assigned to receive us on any of the visits. They are fully aware that the visit takes place every Monday and Thursday.
“Thankfully, we have another date for Monday, and we do hope that this individual will be available on Monday to receive us, whilst we have taken steps to formally bring this latest infraction to the attention of the court.”
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