Federal High Court, Abuja, on Friday, squashed the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by leader of the prosrcibed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu against the Department of States Services (DSS).
Gatekeepers News reports that Justice Taiwo Taiwo, who dismissed the suit in a judgment, said it lack merit and substance.
The IPOB leader, through his lawyer, Maxwell Opara, had, in a fundamental rights enforcement suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1585/2021, sued the Director-General (DG) of DSS and the office as 1st and 2nd respondents respectively.
Kanu also joined the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as 3rd respondent in the suit dated and filed Dec. 13, 2021.
He had alleged that his health was deteriorating in the DSS custody, while also alleging that the medical personnel assigned to attend to him by the DSS were unqualified, among others.
However, the DSS, through its counsel, Idowu Awo, disagreed with Opara, arguing that Kanu’s lawyer had not shown how the doctors attending to his client were doing “quack” work.
Awo further argued that merely stating that the medical doctors his office assigned to attend to Kanu were quacks did not amount to conflict, adding that Opara had not shown any material evidence to prove that the listed medical practitioners were quacks.
The DSS counsel, therefore, prayed the court to discountenance the application.
The AGF’s lawyer, Simon Enoch, also corroborated Awo’s submission, praying the court to reject Opara’s application.
While delivering the judgment on Friday, Justice Taiwo held that Kanu had not provided sufficient evidence that his fundamental rights were infringed upon by the security outfit “as there is no proof of torture before the court.”
On Kanu’s right to practise his religion, the judge said that while the applicant (Kanu) had the constitutional right to practice his religion in custody, he agreed with the position of the respondent (DSS) that a suspect in custody cannot be allowed to practise his religion in such a way that would disturb the peace of other suspects in custody.
Furthermore, on the allegation that the IPOB leader was receiving inadequate treatments from DSS’ doctors whom he had referred to as quacks, Taiwo said that “the applicants fails to lead evidence by calling a medical practitioner to convince the court that based on the medical report, the treatment giving to Kanu is inadequate.”
Consequently, the judge dismissed the suit for lacking in merit and substance.
After the ruling, Kanu’s counsel, Opara said the judgment would be appealed against at the Court of Appeal.
