Ifeanyi Ejiofor, one of the lawyers of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, alleged that the Department of State Services (DSS) breached a court order by giving an unauthorised visitor access to his client.
Although Ejiofor did not name anyone, a former governor of Abia State and current Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, said he visited the IPOB leader on Monday.
The lawyer alleged that the DSS allowed a visitor access to his client before the time scheduled for the formal visit and without Kanu’s lawyers being present.
Ejiofor, in the statement posted on his Facebook wall yesterday, said: “Our yesterday’s (Monday’s) routine visit to our client – Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu – was hugely insightful, following the successful twist in our introduced methodology…
“Meaningful interventions were reviewed, and legal steps we are exploring to continue to checkmate the aggressors within the ambits of legal inhibitions were thoroughly x-rayed.
“Kudos were given to deserving members of our legal team who have remained outstanding in the discharge of their professional duties, as well as every one of us who have remained relentless and resolute.
“Our client continues to admonish for peaceful co-existence of UmuChineke, unflinching support and unshaken loyalty.
“You may wish to note, and be very much assured that our client’s eyes are always on the ball, as he has remained ever resolute and unperturbed despite being gravely disappointed by those he hitherto trusted.
“We can at best describe what transpired yesterday (Monday) between a visitor whom the detaining authority ostensibly aided to violate the court-ordered guideline for visiting our client as bizarre and unusual.
“The DSS is not oblivious of the terms of the court’s guideline which they have consistently maintained in the past that it must be obeyed to the letter, and through which position they had denied many friends and attorneys of our client, access to him.
“However, caution was thrown to the wind and instead of insisting on this full compliance with the existing guideline, the DSS for reasons best known to them allowed a visitor access to our client even before the time scheduled for the formal visit and without his lawyers being present during the visit.”
Ejiofor said it was of “serious concern” that the visit was conducted without strict adherence to the court-ordered guideline.
He added that it was “more condescending that the visit later became a subject of political gimmicks”.
“If our client’s attorneys, his flesh and blood brothers, and his wife will visit him in due compliance with the court-ordered guideline, how can the DSS authorise a visit from any other person in gross violation of this guideline?
“There is more to it than meets the eyes, which the DSS is now under a compelling duty to explain to us.
“Granted that his name appeared among the list submitted at the 11th hour alongside the names of the lawyers scheduled for the visit, but hurriedly proceeding to conduct the visit without us being present in line with the requirement of the guideline left us with many unanswered questions.
“We have initiated a formal process towards ensuring a thorough investigation of what transpired yesterday (Monday), and we shall not hesitate to formally address the world on this subject if there is any attempt to sweep our petition under the carpet,” the lawyer said.
DSS spokesman, Dr Peter Afunanya, did not respond to enquiries for his response on the matter.
