A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, against the Department of State Services (DSS).
The presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, in a judgement delivered on Thursday, July 13, 2023, held that Kanu’s suit lacked merit and ought to be dismissed.
Kanu had, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/482/2022 and filed by his lawyer, sued the Director General of DSS, the secret police, and the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) as 1st to 3rd respondents, respectively.
In the suit, the IPOB leader alleged that the DSS subjected him to different inhuman treatments, including denying him his right to wear any clothes of his choice like the Igbo traditional attire called “Isi-Agu”, while in their facility or any time he appeared in court for his trial.
He alleged that the security outfit while allowing other inmates in their custody the freedom to choose and wear any clothes of their choice, he was restricted to wearing only a single cloth.
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The applicant also accused the DSS of subjecting him to torture, breaching his right to dignity, among others.
He, therefore, sought an order directing the respondents to allow him to put on any cloth of his choice while in the facility or when appearing in public, among other reliefs.
But in a counter affidavit filed by the DSS and its DG, they urged the court to dismiss Kanu’s claim, adding that their operatives did not and had never tortured Kanu either physically or mentally while in their custody.
Delivering the judgement, Justice Omotosho held that the right to human dignity is contained in Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution.
He said it was clear that a right to human dignity related to the right against torture and inhuman treatment, among others.
The judge held that Kanu’s case did not relate to torture or forced labour as he was never tortured while in custody based on the evidence before the court.
He said a right to dignity was not a right to change clothes as an inmate in a prison.
“The applicant cannot come to court to seek for rights which are not in the constitution,” Justice Omotosho added.
The judge held that Kanu failed to provide the photographs and names of inmates who were allowed to wear different attires while in custody.
He said the onus was on him to prove his case but the applicant merely rely on bare facts without any evidence.
Justice Omotosho, who described the IPOB leader’s allegations as “an hypothesis without concrete evidence”, dismissed the case for lacking in merit.
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