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Mr. Aloy Ejimako, counsel for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has said that the legal team of Kanu will appeal the recent ruling of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The FHC presided by Justice James Omotosho had dismissed the fundamental rights suit filed by Kanu against the Federal Government for lack of merit.
But Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimako, in a swift move said, “We will appeal.”
Justice Omotosho had ruled that the IPOB leader failed to provide evidence to sustain his claim that the Federal Government; the Attorney General of the Federation; the Department of State Services and its Director General, listed as defendants, violated his fundamental rights.
Kanu had, in the suit marked FHC/CS/1633/2023, claimed that the DSS and its Director General violated his right to a fair hearing by allegedly preventing his lawyers from having unhindered interactions with him to prepare him for his treason trial.
He alleged that DSS officials eavesdropped on his conversations with his lawyers, which constituted a breach of his right to a fair hearing.
He further alleged that DSS operatives did not allow his lawyers to take notes during pre-trial meetings with him.
He prayed the court to make “a declaration that the respondents’ act of forcible seizure and photocopying of confidential legal documents pertaining to facilitating the preparation of his defence which were brought to him at the respondents’ detention facility by his lawyers, amounted to a denial of his rights to be defended by legal practitioners of his own choice.”
Kanu has been on trial since 2015 when he was arrested over his secessionist push.
He fled the country in 2017 after being granted bail but was rearrested in Kenya and repatriated to Nigeria in 2021. He has been in the DSS detention since then.
