Operations of the State Security Service (SSS), on Wednesday, prevented a British diplomat from speaking with the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Eno Agodo, British Vice Consul in Lagos, attended Kanu’s trial before Binta Nyako in Abuja on Wednesday, where the Biafran rabble-rouser is being tried on a 15-count amended charge bordering on the offenses of treason and terrorism.
At the close of the lawsuit proceedings in the Abuja Federal High Court on Wednesday, Ms. Agodo first sought permission from Ifeanyi Ejiofor, Mr. Kanu’s lead attorney, to speak with her client, which was granted.
But as the British diplomat made her way to the dock where Mr. Kanu, who has dual citizenship in Nigeria and the UK, was talking to members of his family, she was intercepted by the Director of Legal Services of the secret police and agents who had formed a wall around the IPOB leader.
Thereafter, the PREMIUM TIMES reporter tried to talk to Ms. Agodo about what happened, but she refused.
Jonathan Bacon, political adviser to the British High Commission, had written a letter dated January 11, 2022 and addressed to the trial judge, Ms. Nyako, requesting permission for Ms. Agodo to attend the trial. of Mr. Kanu from January 18 to 20.
In the letter entitled ‘Nnamdi Kanu Trial-Access for British Consular Official to Attend Federal High Court, 18th to 20th January, 2022’, the British High Commission specifically requested that Ms. Agodo attend the IPOB leader’s trial as an “observer”. .
The UK took Kanu in after he jumped bail and fled Nigeria in 2017 when soldiers raided his home.
This stalled his trial in Nigeria for years until he was arrested again, reportedly in Kenya, and brought back to Nigeria in June last year.
While abroad, Mr. Kanu continued to communicate with his Nigerian supporters through social media channels as violence linked to the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the armed wing of IPOB, intensified. in the southeast.
During the period, the UK government also resisted calls from the Nigerian government to declare IPOB a terrorist organization as was done in Nigeria in 2017.
another lock
Blocking the British representative from having access to Kanu on Wednesday highlights what appears to be the government’s desperation to prevent him from having any contact with foreigners or their agents.
A similar scenario played out during Mr. Kanu’s trial on Tuesday, when Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate for Nigeria (SAN), who led the IPOB leader’s defense team, made frantic but unsuccessful efforts to get Bruce Fein, a attorney for the United States, attend. the court session.
Mr. Fein, a lawyer for the secessionist group in the US, has been unable to have an audience with Mr. Kanu, as he stated that several attempts to visit the IPOB leader at the IPOB detention center had been resisted. SSS in Abuja.
“I have not been able to meet with my client, Mr. Kanu, since I arrived in Nigeria,” Mr. Fein told our reporter in an interview last December.
“State Security Service officials did not allow me to meet Mr. Kanu,” Mr. Fein added, calling the spy agency’s action a “serious violation” of Mr. Kanu’s fundamental rights.
Mr. Fein had received similar treatment during previous proceedings in the case.
However, a senior official from the Federal Attorney General’s (AGF) office, Abubakar Malami, said the American lawyer had no right to represent the IPOB leader in a Nigerian court.
“Bruce Fein has no right to represent either Mr. Kanu or IPOB in any Nigerian court,” the official who requested anonymity told this reporter.
“Has Mr. Fein been called to the Nigerian Bar Association?” the source asked.
Last week, Kanu wrote to the British High Commission and the US embassy in Nigeria, urging them to send representatives to observe proceedings in his ongoing trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The IPOB leader had made his requests on the basis that the presence of the British and American envoys could ensure a fair trial in his case.
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This newspaper was unable to determine whether Ms. Agodo’s presence in court was in response to Mr. Kanu’s request.
But the US embassy had no representative at the proceedings last Tuesday and Wednesday.