Court summons, threatens to jail SSS DG over Nnamdi Kanu

The Federal High Court in Abuja has summoned the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Adeola Ajayi, to defend himself over the secret police’s alleged continued refusal to allow lawyers access to Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Kanu, who is facing terrorism charges, 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.

Last week, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the court threatened to jail the SSS director-general if he continued to deny lawyers access to the IPOB leader.

‘Show cause why you shouldn’t be jailed’

In a statement on Friday, Aloy Ejimakor, the special counsel to Mr Kanu, said the court has issued a “show-cause notice” against the SSS director-general.

“Yesterday (Thursday), the Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja issued a judicial process against Mr. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi (the Director-General of State Security Service) to show cause why he (Ajayi) should not be committed to prison for his disobedience of court order concerning visitations to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by his lawyers,” Mr Ejimakor said.

“Take Notice that the Defendant (Kanu) will apply to this court for an order for your committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of this court made on the 20th day of May, 2024,” the court said in the notice to Mr Ajayi.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that the judge, Justice Binta Nyako, on 20 May this year, ordered the SSS to allow Mr Kanu to receive visitors three days a week – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Why the court summoned the director-general

Mr Ejimakor said the court’s summon was triggered by an alleged “refusal” of Mr Ajayi “to retrace his steps” after he was warned to stop blocking lawyers from having access to Mr Kanu or face imprisonment.

The special counsel claimed that despite the court threat to jail Mr Ajayi, some armed SSS operatives, on Wednesday, barricaded two of Mr Kanu’s lawyers from accessing the IPOB leader.

He claimed that the operatives were acting on the “instructions and orders” of the SSS director-general.

“It is self-evident that Mr Ajayi is acting on the legal advice emanating from their private Counsel, Asiwaju Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), who is holding the fiat of the Attorney-General of the Federation (Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN),” Mr Ejimakor stated.

Nyako’s recusal did not invalidate order

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Justice Nyako, on 24 September, withdrew from handling Mr Kanu’s trial after the IPOB leader accused her of bias.

The judge, however, later took over the case following the directive from the chief justice of Nigeria.

Mr Ejimakor, in the Friday statement, recalled that Mr Awomolo, on behalf of the attorney-general and the federal government, filed an application on 7 October, arguing that the initial withdrawal of Justice Nyako from the case had invalidated all the orders she made in the case.

“In rebuttal, we filed a process, stating that if the orders made by Justice Nyako are now – by virtue of her recusal – null and void, then the order of remand/detention of Mazi Kanu which was also made by her has become null and void, thus rendering Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s detention unconstitutional,” he said.

The lawyer asked the federal government to “follow their logic” by freeing Mr Kanu “immediately” since the IPOB leader was being detained and tried on the order earlier made by the judge.

“In other words, it is wrong and unconstitutional for the federal government (or the SSS) to cherry-pick which orders it will obey and the ones it will disobey. No sane society anchored on the rule of law should tolerate this.”

‘SSS detaining facility is a hindrance to Kanu’s fair trial’

Mr Ejimakor stressed that the latest alleged interference with Mr Kanu’s access to his lawyers proves that the IPOB leader’s continued detention at the SSS facility “constitutes a permanent institutional hindrance to any prospect of garnering him a fair trial.”

He said this was the reason for their vigorous applications for his bail or transfer to prison custody or home detention, where such “unconstitutional restrictions” do not exist.

“Like we had indicated in the recent past, no criminal trial can ever happen when the conditions of detention or the locale of custody of the defendant is fraught with man-made hindrances to the adequate preparation of the defendant for his defence, particularly access to the lawyers that are conducting his defence,” the special counsel stated.

“And going by the current stance of the attorney-general of the federation, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s continued detention has become extrajudicial to boot.”

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach the SSS to get their comments.

The secret police recently redeployed its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, without announcing a replacement.

Background

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

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

On 27 September, the lawyers 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 former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

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 judgment at the Supreme Court.

Delivering judgment 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.