The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to urgently constitute a team of medical experts to verify the state of health of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Justice James Omotosho, in his ruling on Friday, instructed that the panel, to be set up by the NMA President, must submit its findings within eight days. The court said the medical review is necessary to determine if Kanu should be moved to the National Hospital for advanced treatment.
The judge directed that the NMA committee, which should include between eight and ten members, must feature at least a cardiologist, a neurologist, and the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital. He also granted the committee the freedom to use any hospital in Nigeria for their assessment.
Justice Omotosho’s directive came after conflicting medical reports were presented by the Department of State Services (DSS) and Kanu’s private consultants.
Earlier in the proceedings, the DSS legal counsel, Asiwaju Adegboyega Awomolo, disclosed that the NMA had already been involved in the matter. He noted that the DSS medical team, led by Dr. Mohammed Nasir, insisted that Kanu’s condition could be adequately handled at DSS facilities.
However, Kanu’s private consultant, Professor Martin Aghaji, a retired professor of medicine from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, countered this position, stressing that Kanu’s health had worsened and that he required urgent transfer to the National Hospital, or possibly abroad.
The DSS rejected Aghaji’s findings, claiming the report was exaggerated and alleging that the professor had altered Kanu’s medications without consulting DSS doctors who had been treating him for four years.
Awomolo argued that transferring Kanu to the National Hospital could pose security risks and disrupt services, but stressed that the government was open to allowing medical experts of Kanu’s choice to attend to him while he remained in DSS custody.
Kanu’s lead counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, disagreed, stating that the DSS lacked the facilities to manage his client’s health. He said, “It is in the interest of justice that Kanu remains alive to face the terrorism charges against him.”
Ikpeazu noted that his team would not oppose the NMA’s intervention as long as it was formally ordered by the court.
okay.ng reports that this ruling marks a critical point in the long-standing debate over the adequacy of medical care for the detained IPOB leader.
