IPOB leader Kanu in pains, needs surgery, says counsel

The lead counsel for the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has said that Kanu lacks potassium in his bloodstream and may need “urgent heart surgery.”

This is as he and his team of over 18 lawyers signed a notice of application for an Order of Judicial Review (Order 34) in the Federal High Court in the Abuja Judicial Division, Abuja.

The order with suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/2341/2022, dated December 20, 2022, sought to compel the State Security Service to grant Kanu ‘unhindered access’ to his medical doctors to enable them to conduct an ‘independent examination of his present deteriorating health condition’ as earlier ordered by the Federal High Court on October 21, 2021.

Ozekhome also prayed the court grant leave to Kanu to compel the DSS to avail him with “all his medical records from June 29, 2021, to date, including but not limited to the admission records, medical and clinical records, nursing notes, observation charts and documentation during treatment or stay in the hospital, laboratory test results, pharmaceutical records, radiological scan, images and reports, blood transfusion records and physiotherapy and rehabilitative treatment records”, among others.

The document further stated that the ‘abduction’ of Kanu from Kenya and how he was ‘subjected to various forms of brutal torture and inhuman treatment and degradation of all which worsened his health condition.

The lead counsel also noted that Kanu suffered a mild cardiac arrest before he was ‘smuggled’ back into Nigeria, noting that his health condition has continued to take a downward spiral since then.

“That various medical personnel that attended to the Applicant whilst in custody had repeatedly informed him that they could not ascertain the reason for the depletion of potassium in the applicant’s blood.

“That on various occasions, the medical personnel brought by the respondents took the applicant’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.”