The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Service to grant the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, access to a medical doctor of his choice on grounds that he requires urgent ear surgery amidst his reported failing health.
Justice Binta Nyako while delivering judgement on Thursday also ordered that the DSS should also monitor, record and seal all medical sessions administered on the IPOB leader, for security purposes.
The trial judge also dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the DSS challenging the application before it, on grounds that Kanu has the right to medical services even in dentention.
The court also ordered that all Kanu’s medical records be made available to the IPOB leader.
Kanu’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had on the last adjourned date told the court that the DSS had repeatedly refused to grant his client access to his personal doctor, and had also refused to release the medical records of the IPOB leader, even after their medical team confirmed the need for him to seek medical attention.
Ozekhome stressed that the action of the DSS indicated that it is not willing to allow his client access to proper medical attention, which is in breach of Section 7 of the Anti-torture Act.
Nnamdi Kanu, in the suit stated that he would need his doctors to conduct an independent examination to ascertain his actual state of health.
Kanu is praying the court for an order, granting him leave to, “apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to allow him unhindered access to his medical doctors to enable them conduct an independent examination of his present detoriorating health condition, as earlier ordered by the Federal High Court, Abuja, coram, Hon. Justice B.F.M. Nyako, on the 21st day of October, 2021; and as required by the express provisions of section 7 of the Anti-Torture Act, 2017”.
He is also seeking “an order of this Honourable Court granting leave to the Applicant to apply for judicial review in the form of an order of Mandamus, compelling the Respondents to avail the Applicant with all his medical records, from the 29th day of June, 2021, till date”.
Kanu listed some of the records he would require from the DSS, to include; his admission records, medical and clinical notes, nursing notes, observation charts and documentation during treatment or stay-in-hospital, laboratory test results, pharmaceutical records, radiological scans, images and reports, blood transfusion records, physiotherapy and rehabilitative treatment records, clinical findings, as well as diagnosis and treatment prescribed records.
