The embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has applied to the Federal High Court in Abuja to be transferred from the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) to prison.
Alluding to a worsening heart condition, Kanu also urged the court to make an order granting him access to his cardiology doctor.
Recall that his trial on charges of treasonable felony resumed on Monday.
Kanu, who fled Nigeria, ditching his trial in 2017, was rearrested and brought back to Nigeria last month under controversial circumstances.
He was produced in court on June 29, when the trial judge, Binta Nyako, ordered him to be remanded in the custody of the SSS and adjourned the case till yesterday.
The hearing resumed with the arrival of the judge around 11.10 a.m.
But Kanu was conspicuously absent as the SSS failed to produce him in court.
The prosecution cited issues of “logistics” as the reason for SSS’ inability to produce Mr Kanu in court, but defence lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, countered the suggestion, saying the defendant had been moved out of Abuja.
The judge subsequently adjourned the trial till October 21.
In his application filed by his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, on July 14, Kanu’s legal team said he would not get a fair trial if he remained in SSS custody.
“The applicant cannot get fair trial in this case if the applicant continues to be detained in the custody of the State Security Service, where there is apparent inhibition to witnesses and materials that will be used for his defence,” the application read in part.
“The principle of Nemo Judex in Causa sua is applicable in this case: The State Security Service is keeping and prosecuting the applicant at the same time.
“The fact that it was the State Security Service that arrested and accused the applicant for the commission of the alleged offences in charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 and still keeps the applicant in their custody, clearly shows that the right to fair trial of the applicant cannot be guaranteed.”
The defence lawyer also argued that aside from the SSS not being “an impartial entity regarding the detention”, Kanu also faces the difficulties of having “very limited access to his lawyers”.
Ejiofor said Kanu’s lawyers “can only visit him after the approval of the Director of the State Security Services has been first fought and obtained, which said approval in most cases, takes days”.
The situation, he said, “would greatly impede the defendant’s constitutional right to unrestricted access to facilities for the preparation of his defence”.
In addition, Ejiofor argued that “The cell of the State Security Service is not a statutorily recognised facility for detaining persons who are facing trials before a court of law”.
The Nigerian prison, officially referred to as the Nigerian Correctional Service Centre, Mr Ejiofor said, is not only the proper place of custody for the defendant but also “an impartial facility that has no interest whatsoever, in the outcome of this charge”.
