Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB leader.
The Human Rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), on Sunday, warned the Nigerian government that there will be "far-reaching" consequences if the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is left to die in its custody.
Kanu has been in solitary confinement at the detention facility of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021.
Chief Mike Ozekhome, the lead counsel to the IPOB leader recently disclosed that Kanu may need “urgent heart surgery” for lack of potassium in his bloodstream, adding that Kanu's "abduction" from Kenya and how he was "subjected to various forms of brutal torture and inhuman treatment and degradation all worsened his health condition."
Ozekhome also noted that Kanu suffered a mild cardiac arrest before he was "smuggled" back into Nigeria and that various medical personnel that attended to him whilst in custody had repeatedly told Kanu that they could not explain the depletion of potassium in his blood.
He further revealed that on various occasions, the medical personnel took Kanu’s "blood sample and allegedly transported same to South Africa for screening; and up till the present, there is no end in sight for their trial-and-error medicare.”
Addressing a press conference in Enugu on Sunday, the Intersociety principal officers and members of the Governing Board led by the Board Chair, Chief Emeka Umeagbalasi, urged the federal government to work on dousing tension by reconciling with aggrieved citizens across the country, instead of holding Kanu in perpetuity.
The rights group maintained that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government should use its remaining days in office to initiate and pursue a political solution to the agitation for Biafra.
Intersociety said, "Nnamdi Kanu must not die in detention. The DSS can give medical treatment either in Nigeria or outside Nigeria. The consequences of dying in detention will be far-reaching."
Intersociety also called on the federal government to release all other pro-Biafra agitators held in various detention centers across Nigeria.
"The federal government should also release all other pro-Biafra agitators held in various detention centers across the country. As a government that will soon wind up, it should start making amends and use a political solution in addressing the issue of pro-Biafra agitation."
Speaking on insecurity across the East, Intersociety called for the dismantling of 1,500 military checkpoints and 4,000 police checkpoints in the South-East and South-South regions of the country, saying, "those checkpoints have been converted to extortion points."
The group accused the military personnel deployed in the region of colluding with criminal elements to commit crimes and kidnap people along the highways in the region, using the military checkpoints as camouflage.
It alleged that in 2022, state actors and non-state actors in the South East jointly killed 1,700 civilians and abducted 1,800.
On the upcoming 2023 general elections, Intersociety said that it has identified more than 50 rigging strategies that the electoral body can use to undermine the elections and called on the international community and other civil society organizations to watch closely the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure free and fair elections.
"On account of these, Intersociety has filed a class suit against INEC over seven million disenfranchised new registrants/600 other litigation," it said.
Human Rights. Politics and Opinion.
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