The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has taken legal action against the Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, accusing him of contempt of court.
Through his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu filed a contempt charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging Bichi’s alleged refusal to obey court orders.
The application, dated June 10 and marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, is titled “Notice to Show Cause Why An Order Of Committal Should Not Be Made.”
In the application, Kanu claims that despite being served with orders from Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on May 20, Bichi has failed to comply.
Justice Nyako had declined Kanu’s application to set aside his 2017 bail revocation and refused to transfer him to Kuje Correctional Centre or place him under house arrest. Instead, she varied the visitation days for Kanu’s legal team at the DSS facility to three days a week and ordered that he be given a safe and clean room to prepare for his defence with up to five lawyers.
Kanu alleges that the DSS has not abided by these orders. The case highlights the ongoing legal battles and tensions surrounding Kanu’s case and the actions of the DSS.
It read in part, “Take Notice that the Defendant will on the ____day of _______, 2024, at the hour of 9 o’clock in the forenoon apply to this court for an order for your committal to prison for having disobeyed the order of this court made on the 20th day of May 2024, which stated in pertinent part as follows:
“You have not complied with the 3 (three) days per week visitation to the Applicant as was ordered by the court.
“You have not provided a safe and ‘clean’ room to the Applicant at the present facility to prepare for his defense with his team of counsel.
“You have not allowed such facility that is required for the preparation of the Applicant’s defence, which facility you have disallowed on every visitation since the said order was entered, as set out below:
“Interdiction, seizure, perusal and photocopying of legal documents relating to the trial preparation of the Applicant.
“By not retracing your steps after you were, on the 31st day of May 2024, served with a Form 48; Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Court.
“AND TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that you are hereby required to attend the court on the first-mentioned day to show cause why an Order for your Committal should not be made.”
