Fresh details have emerged explaining why the Department of State Services (DSS) is reportedly blocking lawyers from meeting with Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who has been in custody since his controversial repatriation from Kenya in June 2021. The DSS claims that a court order permitting legal access only applies when the trial is underway, according to sources close to the matter.
Kanu’s legal team has frequently raised concerns over these restrictions, arguing that they impede adequate trial preparation. On October 17, a Federal High Court in Abuja issued a warning to DSS Director-General Adeola Ajayi, threatening possible jail time should the denial of access continue. Following this, the court summoned Ajayi to provide an explanation for the ongoing block on Kanu’s legal access.
Judge Binta Nyako had previously ordered the DSS, on May 20, to allow Kanu visits three days a week—Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—in a secure, clean room suitable for meeting with up to five counsel members. This arrangement was intended to give Kanu’s legal team the necessary space to confer and take notes to prepare for his defense. Yet, according to DSS sources, they interpret the order as permitting access only for trial preparation, which they argue has not officially resumed due to Kanu’s previous request for Judge Nyako’s recusal.
The court, however, has since confirmed Justice Nyako’s resumption of the case, yet no specific trial date has been set. Based on this, the DSS maintains that the access order does not apply until an official trial date is established, a stance that Kanu’s lawyer, Nnaemeka Ejiofor, has criticized as obstructive and unlawful.
Ejiofor called the DSS’s argument “childish,” asserting, “An order of the court does not ordinarily elapse unless it is set aside by another order of court.” He emphasized that the DSS lacks the authority to block visitation when a standing court order is in place. “If they are saying we cannot see him until the trial has started, is it when the trial resumes that we then start preparing our client (Kanu) for trial?” Ejiofor questioned.
Furthermore, Ejiofor argued that if the DSS believes the court’s access order expired with Justice Nyako’s temporary recusal, then by that logic, Kanu’s detention itself would also lack validity. “It, therefore, means that Nnamdi Kanu has no business being in SSS detention. It also means that his further detention at the SSS facility is illegal because the order has expired according to the SSS,” he added.
