Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Mr. Onyedikachi Ifedi, a member of the legal team of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has countered claims by the Department of State Services (DSS) that Kanu’s medical condition is not critical.
Kanu’s lawyer accused the secret police of lying and misleading the public about the true health condition of the IPOB leader.
Ifedi, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the DSS did not have the competence to oversee Kanu’s healthcare.
He also accused the DSS of playing “hide-and-seek” with the IPOB leader’s health.
According to him, contrary to narratives in some sections of the media, Kanu has a critical cardiovascular condition.
Kanu’s lawyer said the DSS would be held accountable for Kanu’s health.
He accused the agency of downplaying the severity of Kanu’s health condition which, according to him, requires urgent medical attention by experts.
Kanu’s lawyer challenged the DSS to hold a press conference with medical experts if it disputed Kanu’s claims regarding the quality of medical attention he receives and the competence of his handlers.
The statement made available to Ikengaonline read in part: “We have read with utter dismay the latest propaganda being churned out by the Department of State Services (DSS) through their willing media collaborators, purporting to ‘fault’ Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s revelations on the quack medical attention to which he has been subjected.
“This is yet another episode in the DSS’s attempt to exploit its relationship with sections of the Nigerian media to misinform the public and malign our client.
“The facts are simple and indisputable: The DSS has been playing hide-and-seek with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s health.
“Despite being present during his medical examinations and tests, the DSS suddenly introduced one Dr. Nasiru Mohammed, an individual with no demonstrable competence in handling life-threatening cardiovascular conditions.”
He doubted whether Dr. Mohammed had the competence to deal with “the grave dangers associated with potassium depletion in the bloodstream—a condition our client faces.”
Kanu’s lawyer asked: “If indeed the DSS has nothing to hide, why has it refused to release the full and unedited test results for the world to see? Instead, like a petty thief caught in the act, the DSS has resorted to desperate lies and media smokescreens.
“Why did the DSS also have to fly Mazi Kanu’s blood samples to South Africa for analysis if, as it falsely claims, nothing is wrong with him? This singular act exposes the hollow nature of its propaganda.”
Kanu’s lawyer argued that “a security agency which does not even understand the clinical implications of aortic valve regurgitation or congestive heart failure has no business presuming to oversee the healthcare of a man whose life is already endangered by its reckless detention conditions.”
He challenged the secret police “to convene an open press conference where independent journalists and medical experts can freely interrogate them on the state of Mazi Kanu’s health.”
According to him, “if the DSS is so confident in its position, it should subject itself to the disinfecting sunlight of public scrutiny.”
Kanu’s lawyer alleged that “unfortunately, the modus operandi of the DSS has always been to intimidate doctors into watering down their medical reports so as to fit the government’s preferred narrative, in order to deceive the courts into believing that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is well.”
He further alleged that “the tragedy of Nigeria’s judicial system is that these Abuja-based courts, steeped in bias against the Igbo, often oblige them without question.”
“This pattern of lies, concealment, and medical quackery must end. The health and life of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are not pawns in the DSS’s propaganda war. We will continue to expose every falsehood and hold the DSS accountable before Nigerians and the international community.”
Kanu has been in detention at the DSS headquarters in Abuja since June 2021 following his extraordinary rendition from Kenya.
