The Federal High Court in Abuja is set to rule today on a pressing ex-parte motion filed by Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), requesting his immediate transfer from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) to the National Hospital for critical medical intervention.
Kanu's legal team, led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), argues that his health has rapidly declined during prolonged detention, with tests revealing life-threatening conditions including liver and kidney complications, critically low potassium levels, and a suspicious swelling under his armpit.
The application, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, comes as Kanu awaits a hearing on a separate no-case submission challenging the terrorism charges against him, originally filed in 2015 and revived after his dramatic 2021 rendition from Kenya.
In a 14-page supporting affidavit, Kanu's younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu, detailed the activist's recent complaints of persistent weakness and body pains, which prompted an independent medical examination in August by a team headed by Emeritus Professor Austin A.C. Agaji.
The doctors' report, conveyed to the family on September 1 at Agabi's law firm, highlighted "issues relating to his liver and kidney as well as dangerously low levels of potassium," alongside the armpit swelling that demands swift diagnostic tests to rule out malignancy or infection.
"The doctors have recommended that he be moved to the National Hospital as an interim measure to afford him medical attention and forestall further decline," Agabi urged in the motion, noting that a prior letter to DSS Director-General Yusuf Bichi advising the transfer had received no response.
The lawyer emphasized the urgency, pointing out that Kanu's earlier bail application from May 19 remains unheard due to the court's annual vacation, allowing his condition to worsen in the "nature of his confinement."
Uchenna Njoku (SAN), speaking on behalf of the defense last week, stressed that the plea is not for outright release or bail but for monitored specialist care to prevent irreversible harm.
Kanu, 57, has been held in solitary confinement at the DSS facility since June 2021, following his extraordinary arrest abroad on an Interpol warrant. The IPOB leader, who jumped bail in 2017 and resurfaced in Israel, faces seven counts of treasonable felony, terrorism, and managing an unlawful society—charges his supporters decry as politically motivated to silence the Southeast's secessionist agitation.
Previous court rulings have been mixed: In October 2022, the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him, only for the Supreme Court to overturn that decision in December 2023, remanding the case for retrial.
Health concerns have shadowed his detention, with earlier reports of heart issues and hypertension fueling accusations of deliberate neglect by authorities.
IPOB, through spokesperson Emma Powerful, decried the situation as "state-sponsored suppression," alleging that favorable medical reports are being buried to prolong Kanu's suffering.
"Nnamdi Kanu is a prisoner of conscience whose voice for Biafran self-determination threatens the status quo. Denying him basic healthcare is a crime against humanity," Powerful stated in a broadcast on Radio Biafra.
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