The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against the Department of State Services by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra.
According to the presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, Kanu’s claim lacks merit and should be rejected.
The News Agency of Nigeria, reported that Kanu sued the Director General of DSS, DSS, and the Attorney-General of the Federation as the first, second, and third respondents in the suit designated FHC/ABJ/CS/482/2022 and filed by his counsel.
The IPOB leader claimed in the suit that the DSS subjected him to various inhumane treatment, including depriving him the right to wear any garments of his choice, such as the Igbo traditional attire known as “Isi-Agu,” while at their facility or whenever he appeared in court for his trial.
He claimed he was forced to wear a single article of clothing by the security staff, even though they let other detainees wear whatever they liked.
The applicant further claimed that the DSS violated his right to dignity by torturing him.
He filed a lawsuit demanding, among other things, that he be allowed to wear anything he liked while at the facility and in public.
However, the DSS and its DG filed a counter affidavit asking the court to throw out Kanu’s allegation.
They claimed that no one in their employ had tortured Kanu in any way, either emotionally or physically.
The DSS claims that they have Kanu, the applicant, locked up in the same facility where they keep all criminal suspects.
They denied that other suspects were given freedom to dress as they saw fit, saying that this included traditional Hausa and Yoruba garb.
They claimed the venue was not a place for entertainment or a festival where Kanu and the other accused could parade around in their native garb.
They said that they had a SOP in place about the appropriate attire for visitors to their facilities.
“That in line with global best practices, persons in the 1st and 2nd respondents’ facility are allowed to wear only plain clothes which do not bear symbols, writings, colours and insignias that are offensive to any religion, ethnic group or even the Nigeria state in general,” they said.
DSS claims the applicant’s criminal trial is related to the fact that his or her clothing features the colours of the fictional Biafra Republic.
According to the standard operating procedure, inmates are not allowed to wear what is often known as chieftaincy garb, which is Isi-Agu clothing.
They also claimed that the court where Kanu is being tried, Justice Binta Nyako, had ordered that he be permitted to wear whatever plain attire he wished, and that any restrictions would be in violation of this order.
The DSS denied the IPOB leader’s allegations that they had violated his human rights.
Justice Omotosho ruled that Article 34 of the Constitution of 1999 guarantees the right to human dignity.
Justice Omotosho ruled that Article 34 of the Constitution of 1999 guarantees the right to human dignity.
He stated that it was obvious that the right against torture and inhuman treatment was connected to the right to human dignity.
On the basis of the facts presented, the judge ruled that Kanu’s case did not involve torture or forced work.
He argued that prisoner dignity did not include the freedom to alter one’s appearance.
“The applicant cannot come to court to seek rights which are not in the constitution,” he argued.
Moreover, Justice Omotosho ruled that Kanu had failed to produce the identities and images of prisoners who had been granted permission to change their clothing while in custody.
The petitioner, he claimed, was relying on the bare facts without any evidence, while it was his responsibility to substantiate his case.
He described the IPOB leader’s allegations as “a hypothesis without concrete evidence.”
The judge, consequently, dismissed the case for lacking merit.
