Nnamdi Kanu’s special counsel said yesterday that he has sent the Department of State Services (DSS) a final administrative demand for Kanu’s immediate release following the Federal High Court’s October 26 ruling in Umuahia, Abia State.
The court ruled, following the attorney Aloy Ejimakor, that Kanu’s continuing imprisonment in DSS custody in Abuja amounts to a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution.
He claimed to have written to DSS Director General Yusuf Bichi to demand Kanu’s release from his ongoing imprisonment. “Prompt judicial steps to enforce compliance will be taken without further notice if this requirement is not complied with,” he warned.
Ejimakor notified the DG of DSS in a letter that was made available to The Guardian that he and a lawyer from the DSS office in Umuahia had been given access to certified true copies of the judgment and the Judgment Order by the Federal High Court on October 27, 2022, the day after it was delivered. “Affirmatively placing your office on record notice of the ruling,” as the phrase goes.
According to Ejimakor the manner of the applicant’s arrest and detention in Kenya, his continued detention in Abuja, his exposure to physical and mental trauma by the respondents, and the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to the applicant amounts to a violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to dignity of his person and a threat to life under section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The Constitution states that the decisions of the Federal High Court, a High Court, and of other courts, established by this Constitution, shall be enforced in any part of the federation by all authorities and persons, and by other courts of law with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Federal High Court, a High Court, and those other courts, respectively.
Ejimakor concluded by writing that it is obligatory for the DSS, acting as the detaining authority, to execute the said judgment by releasing Kanu in conformity with the finding that his continuing imprisonment is unlawful.
