Court threatens to jail DSS DG for blocking Nnamdi Kanu from lawyers
The Abuja Federal High Court on Friday threatened to jail the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi for blocking Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, from his legal team.
In a Notice of Consequences, the court accused the DSS DG of disobeying its ruling ordering Kanu’s lawyers to have routine access to him.
The Notice of Consequences was served on the DSS DG by the Registrar of the Abuja Federal High Court and was made public by Kanu’s lead Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor.
In a statement he signed, Ejimakor threatened to commence contempt proceedings against the DSS boss following the Notice of Consequences served.
The statement reads: “Earlier today, the Registrar of the Federal High Court, Abuja issued a Form 48 which is a Notice of Consequences of disobeying an order of court against the Director General of DSS in regard to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“The Notice stated: “TAKE NOTICE that unless you obey the directions contained in this Order (see overleaf) – by allowing the Applicant’s Counsel to conduct the Court-ordered visitations with the Applicant on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – you will be guilty of Contempt of Court and will be liable to be committed to prison.”
“This Notice is necessitated by the repeated disobedience of the court-ordered visitation of Mazi Kanu by the newly appointed Director-General of the State Security Services (Mr Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi) who has, for almost a month, not allowed Mazi Kanu’s Lawyers to visit him.
“To be clear, this Notice is a quasi-criminal judicial process that forewarns any person disobeying a court order of the penal consequences of such misconduct. Therefore, if the Director-General of DSS persists on this ignoble path, he will leave us with no other option than to commence vigorous contempt proceedings against him.”