DSS confines Kanu to tiny cell 23 hours daily – Lawyers

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, and Aloy Ejimakor, lawyers to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, said on Thursday their client is being subjected to inhuman treatment in the Department of States Security (DSS) custody.

In a joint statement, the lawyers said the IPOB leader is usually confined to a very tiny cell for 23 hours everyday without access to sunlight or interaction with people.

They added that the secret police has not allowed Kanu to change clothes since he was re-arrested on June 27.

The duo claimed DSS refused to replace his corrective lenses smashed by security agents in Kenya.

Ejiofor and Ejimakor added that they were not allowed to have a private discussion with their client since his arrest and subsequent detention by the DSS.

The statement read: “He is solitarily confined to a very tiny cell twenty-three (23) hours of the day without access to sunlight and any social interactions whatsoever. He believes that this is aimed at inflicting extreme emotional and mental distress on him and breaking him psychologically.

“Any detainee who encounters and greets him during the single hour he is allowed outside his cell is promptly put in solitary confinement or transferred to maximum security as a punishment for exchanging mere greetings with him. Because of this, detainees have resorted to avoiding him and exchanging salutations with him, not to talk of any other form of social interactions.

READ ALSO: Nnamdi Kanu must not die in detention, Fr Mbaka warns

“Since the Nigerian government extraordinarily renditioned him, he has not been allowed a change of clothing; and his Jewish prayer shawls and other religious materials brought to him by his counsel were rejected and returned.

“The DSS has refused to replace his corrective glasses (lenses) which were smashed to smithereens by agents of the Nigerian government during the violence they unleashed on him while abducting him in Kenya. This has led to a rapid deterioration of his sight.

“He is restricted to meeting with his counsel in an atmosphere devoid of private discussions with his counsel, and he is oftentimes denied perusal of legal documentation his counsel brings to him to review.

“He is not allowed to sleep with a pillow and this has led him developing acid reflux which comes with acute burning sensations in his chest, chest pains and extreme difficulty in swallowing.

“The DSS has denied his repeated requests for an independent medical examination to determine the extent of damage done to his body by a suspected substance he may have been injected with during this abduction and extraordinary rendition.

“ He has reason to believe that the said injected substance is depleting the potassium content of his body, thus causing him constipation, a feeling of skipped heartbeats, palpitations, fatigue, muscle weakness/spasms, and numbness.”
 

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