FG gets S’Court nod to amend appeal against Kanu

The Supreme Court, on Thursday, okayed the request by  the Federal Government to file additional nine grounds in its appeal on the case of the embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

The ruling followed an application moved by FG’s counsel, Tijani Gadzali (SAN).

Gadzali equally sought an adjournment to respond to Kanu’s request to be transferred from the detention facility of the Department of State Services, to the Kuje Custodial Centre.

The five-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice John Okoro, okayed the  granted leave to the FG to include additional nine grounds as part of its amended notice of appeal dated October 28, 2022.

Counsel for Kanu, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), informed the court about a couple of motions filed by his client, including one in which he prayed to be relocated to Kuje prison from the DSS facility.

Ozekhome told the court that Kanu was seriously ill and required proper medical attention, which, he believed, his client could access at the Kuje prison.

He added that his client had filed an application praying to be released on bail, pending the conclusion of the hearing of the appeal.

He, thereafter, applied for an accelerated hearing of all the pending applications as well as the substantive appeal.

Consequently, the Supreme Court adjourned the case till May 11 for definite hearing.

Meanwhile, IPOB, in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, alleged an outbreak of tuberculosis in the DSS facility in Abuja and demanded Kanu’s release.

The separatist group claimed that the DSS had deliberately kept a tuberculosis patient close to Kanu’s cell in a “desperate” move to expose him to the debilitating disease.

The group called for the intervention of  the World Health Organisation, Red Cross Society, and Amnesty International to prevail on the Federal  Government to release Kanu.

The statement read, “We, the global movement IPOB, hereby alert the public that the DSS has deliberately detained a tuberculosis-infected  person in close proximity to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s cell who is illegally and unconstitutionally detained in DSS solitary confinement in a desperation move to  him with tuberculosis.

“Currently, the detained tuberculosis patient has infected many detainees inside the DSS solitary confinement. DSS solitary confinement is without access to sunlight and lacks proper ventilation, which makes the tuberculosis virus spread fast among the inmates.

“If urgent measures are not taken to avert the situation, there will be a tuberculosis crisis in the Abuja DSS detention facility. We are calling on the Red Cross Society and World Health Organisation to visit the Abuja DSS facility and give independent and unbiased reports on the situation and recommendations for treatment.

“As in the character of the Federal Government, they will deny this report until many victims of illegal detention are dead from tuberculosis infection.”