The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, was granted access to his medical records on Thursday by the Federal High Court in Abuja, which issued the order.
In a judgement that was delivered by Justice Binta Nyako, the court held that the objections the security agency raised against Kanu’s request lacked merit.
It was decided that Kanu had a constitutional right to access the medical professionals of his choice as well as the records he requested.
However, Justice Nyako ruled that the DSS should oversee Kanu’s independent medical examination by his personal doctors, with the entire process being recorded and sealed for security reasons.
The judge’s decision was the result of a lawsuit that the embattled IPOB leader’s legal team, led by Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, filed.
In the lawsuit designated FHC/ABJ/CS/ 2341/2022, Kanu stated specifically that he would require his doctors to conduct a separate examination to determine his actual state of health.
In his request, he urged the court to grant him permission to “apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus compelling the Respondents to permit the Applicant unrestricted 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
Additionally, “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 provide the Applicant with all of his medical records, from the 29th day of June 2021 to the present” was also included in the request.
Kanu listed some of the records he would need from the DSS, including his admission records, medical and clinical notes, nursing notes, observation charts and documentation during treatment or hospitalisation, laboratory test results, pharmaceutical records, radiological scans, images, and reports, blood transfusion records, physiotherapy and rehabilitative treatment records, clinical findings, and diagnosis and treatment prescribed records.
Kanu stated in his application that on October 21, 2021, trial Justice Nyako ordered that he be allowed access to three people of his choice, including his medical doctors.
Kanu argued that Section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017, stated that a person arrested, detained, or undergoing custodial investigation has the right to demand a physical and psychological examination after interrogation by an independent and competent doctor of his own choice, which shall be conducted outside the influence of the Police or security forces.
“The Respondents have repeatedly denied the Applicant access to medical doctors of his choice to independently examine him, in contravention of the court’s order made on October 21, 2021; and the express provisions of Section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017,” he added.
Kanu told the court in a verifying affidavit deposed to by one Chimmuanya Emenari that prior to being arrested, abducted in Kenya, and extra-ordinarily returned to Nigeria, he visited a Specialist Cardiologist every week for medical examination and treatment.
“Medical Reports containing the medical history of the Applicant as issued by medical specialists managing the Applicant before his abduction in Kenya and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria are hereby attached and variously marked as Exhibits MNK 3, MNK 4, and MNK 5.
“Notwithstanding the fact that the Applicant has been discharged by the appellate court and his further detention is prohibited, the Applicant is still being held in solitary confinement in the custody of the respondent, where he is exposed to daily mental and psychological torture and degradation of his human person”.
Kanu claimed that after his “abduction” in Kenya, he was subjected to various forms of brutal torture, inhuman treatment, and degradation, all of which harmed his health and caused him to have a mild cardiac arrest before being “smuggled back into Nigeria.”
“The Applicant’s health condition has continued to take a downward spiral since then.
” Various medical personnel that attended to the Applicant while he was in custody had repeatedly informed him that they could not ascertain the reason for the depletion of potassium in the Applicant’s blood.
“On several occasions, the Respondents’ medical personnel allegedly took the Applicant’s blood sample and allegedly transported it to South Africa for screening, and there is no end in sight for their trial-and-error medicine.”
“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.
“That the medical personnel attending to the Applicant in the custody of the Respondents are oblivious of the cause of the Applicant’s health condition and are basically using the Applicant as a guinea pig while carrying out a trial-and-error exercise, as they keep changing his drugs and increasing the dosage without any improvement whatsoever in his health condition. Attached and marked as Exhibit MNK 6 is a copy of the Applicant’s medical report issued by the Respondents.
“That the full medical history of the Applicant as contained in his Medical file with the detaining authority was deliberately suppressed, as the facts of the speedy depletion in his potassium content were clearly deleted from the medical report which the Respondents issued to the Applicant.
” That the Applicant’s doctor, Dr. CFine Okorochukwu, who had gone to see him on the 29th of August, 2022, and the 1st and 15th of September, 2022, respectively, was denied access to him by the Respondents, in flagrant disregard of the trial court’s Order made on the 21st of October, 2021, which order directed that the Applicant be allowed access to three people of his choice, including his doctors. Copies of the letters forwarding the name of the Doctor to the Respondents are attached and labelled Exhibit MNK8.
“Following the continued refusal of the Respondents to allow the Applicant access to his medical doctor, on the 12th of December, 2022, the Applicant through his lead Counsel- Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN – wrote to the Respondents and demanded that the Applicant be given unhindered access to his own medical doctors; and further, for the Applicant’s comprehensive medical records. A copy of the said letter is hereby attached and marked as Exhibit MNK9.
“That the Respondents completely ignored the Applicant’s request for access to his medical records and access to his doctors,” the deponent claimed.
Though the DSS, through its counsel, Mr. A. M. Danlami, challenged the jurisdiction of the court to grant the request, its objection was dismissed by the court.
