After jail threat, SSS DG finally allows lawyers access to Nnamdi Kanu – Ejimakor

Adeola Ajayi, the director-general of the State Security Service (SSS), has finally allowed lawyers access to Nnamdi Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor, his special counsel, said on Monday.

Mr Kanu, who is facing terrorism charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja, is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The IPOB leader has been in detention since he was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021 under controversial circumstances.

His legal team has repeatedly accused the SSS of denying them access to Mr Kanu.

Meanwhile, the judge, Binta Nyako, on 20 May this year, had ordered the SSS to allow Mr Kanu to receive visitors for three days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

On 18 October week, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the court threatened to jail Mr Ajayi, the SSS director-general, if he continued to deny lawyers access to the IPOB leader in violation of the court order. 

In October,  the court summoned the SSS director-general to “show cause” and defend himself over his alleged refusal to allow lawyers access to the IPOB leader or be jailed.

On 24 October, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and a member of the House from Abia State, Obi Aguocha, visited Mr Kanu at the  SSS facility over the denial of his lawyer’s access to him.

Mr Ejimakor thereafter, during a TV programme  days later, said Messrs Tajudeen and Aguocha had resolved the issue of access denial through a “political compromise.”

Nnamdi Kanu, legal team finally meet

However, Mr Ejimakor,  in a post on his X handle on Monday, said the SSS director-general has finally allowed lawyers access to Mr Kanu. 

“Today (Monday), on the directives of the DG (of the) SSS, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team conducted the first successful visitation with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu since September 27,” he said.

The lawyer said the legal team was accompanied by a Nigerian based in the US, Ndidi Awurum, during the visit.

“Our ramrod legal forays & Hon Obi Aguocha’s intervention were crucial to this outcome,” Mr Ejimakor wrote on the microblogging platform.

Why SSS was denying lawyers access to Nnamdi Kanu

Meanwhile,  top officials of the SSS, in late October, told PREMIUM TIMES that lawyers were being denied access to Mr Kanu because the court trial is currently on hold following the initial withdrawal of Justice Binta Nyako from handling the case.

Background

Mr Kanu’s legal team has repeatedly accused SSS of denying them access to him.

The legal team, for instance,  accused the secret of blocking them from visiting the IPOB leader last Monday. 

The lawyers, on 27 September,  made a similar allegation against the SSS.

Before then, the SSS allegedly prevented some lawyers from seeing the IPOB leader in 2021.

The incident reoccurred in 2022, about a year later. 

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of former Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a breach of his fundamental human rights.

The court, therefore, struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the facility of the SSS.

But the government refused to release the IPOB leader, insisting that he (Kanu) could be unavailable in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the South-east, where he comes from.

The government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying the execution of the court judgement at the Supreme Court.

Delivering judgement on the appeal on 15 December 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the acquittal granted to Mr Kanu by the lower court and consequently ordered the continuation of his trial at the Federal High Court Abuja.