Justice Binta Nyako on Wednesday gave the order after hearing an ex-parte application the embattled filed by the IPOB leader’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
A Federal High Court in Abuja granted the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, the permission to apply for an Order of Mandamus to compel the secret police, Department of State Services DSS, to grant him access to his doctors.
Justice Binta Nyako on Wednesday gave the order after hearing an ex-parte application the embattled filed by the IPOB leader’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN).
Kanu had filed a fresh suit to compel the DSS to grant him access to his doctors to enable them to conduct an independent examination to ascertain his state of health.
The IPOB leader is also asking the court for an order granting leave to apply for judicial review, in the form of an Order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to avail him with all his medical records, from June 29, 2021 to date, Vanguard reports.
The court adjourned the matter till February 21 and directed Kanu’s legal team to serve all the relevant processes on the DSS and its Director-General, listed as the 1st and 2nd Respondents in the matter.
Kanu is asking the court for an order, granting him leave to, “apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to allow the Applicant unhindered access to his medical doctors to enable them to conduct an independent examination of his present deteriorating health condition, as earlier ordered by the Federal High Court, Abuja, Coram, Hon. Justice B.F.M. Nyako, on the 21st day of October 2021; and as required by the express provisions of section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017”.
He is also seeking “an order of this Honourable Court granting leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to avail the Applicant with all his medical records, from the 29th day of June 2021, till date”.
Kanu is requesting from the secret police his admission records, medical and clinical notes, nursing notes, observation charts and documentation during treatment or stay-in-hospital, laboratory test results, pharmaceutical records, radiological scans, images and reports, blood transfusion records, physiotherapy and rehabilitative treatment records, clinical findings, as well as diagnosis and treatment prescribed records.
According to Kanu, upon his “abduction” in Kenya, he was subjected to various forms of brutal torture and inhuman treatment and degradation, which he said worsened his health condition.
He noted that he suffered a mild cardiac arrest before he was “smuggled back into Nigeria”.
He further told the court, “The Applicant’s health condition has continued to take a downward spiral since then.
“That various medical personnel that attended to the Applicant whilst in custody, had repeatedly informed him that they could not ascertain the reason for the depletion of potassium in the Applicant’s blood.
“That on various occasions, the medical personnel brought by the Respondents took the Applicant’s blood sample and allegedly transported same to South Africa for screening and up till the present, there is no end in sight for their trial-and-error medicare.
“That all medical experts that have so far attended to this complex health situation of the Applicant failed to medically fathom the explanation for the continued failure of various treatments so far given to the Applicant, hence their inquiries as to whether the Applicant may have been injected with a dangerous substance by those that abducted him in Kenya before being forcibly smuggled into Nigeria.
On October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja quashed 15 counts bordering on terrorism filed by the Nigerian Government against the IPOB leader and discharged.
However, the government has appealed the judgment at the Supreme Court.