Prince Mandela Umegborogu, one of the lawyers of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has bitterly complained over the alleged relocation of a tuberculosis inmate near Kanu’s cell at the Abuja headquarters of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Kanu’s lawyer who spoke with Vanguard after a routine visit to the IPOB Leader on Monday expressed deep worry over the grave health implications of having a tuberculosis patient in one’s environment.
He said that Kanu was highly enraged about the sad development which he alleged could be a deliberate attempt to infect him with an infectious disease.
”I met with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu today (Monday) at the DSS headquarters in Abuja, and he was complaining to me that they brought somebody suffering from tuberculosis close to his cell block.
”The patient, Emeribe Uduma was arrested in Ohafia on September 15, 2022 , and handed over to the DSS which brought him to Abuja.
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“Onyendu (Kanu) complained to me that that boy was suffering from tuberculosis and that he was moved near his cell block so that he would infect him and others with tuberculosis.
”You know that tuberculosis is very infectious. Do they want to infect him so he will die in detention?
”Onyendu also told me that he (Kanu) was yesterday (Sunday) bleeding from his nose. He requires serious attention by his personal physician.”
The lawyer further said that when DSS officials came to fetch Kanu after their meeting, he raised the same complaint before them but they denied having any tuberculosis inmates around the facility.
”When we finished discussing and some DSS personnel came to take him back to his cell he raised the matter before them.
”He told them that it is immoral and inhuman to do certain things even if it’s an order from above. He told them to have a sense of their own and refuse to obey instructions that are inhuman and illegal.
”I also confronted them and told them it was wrong to bring a tuberculosis patient close to people especially those in confinement where you don’t have ventilation. But they said they had tested everybody and nobody had tuberculosis but Onyendu told them it’s a lie.”
Reacting to the development, Kanu’s family has called on the international community to prevail on the Nigerian authorities not to allow Kanu to die in detention.
The family which spoke through Prince Emmanuel Kanu, expressed worry over the development and renewed the call for his release in compliance with various court orders.
”They should bear in mind that Kanu is an innocent man who has been set free by the Court. Any plan to bring him down through infectious disease should be dropped. The international community should prevail on Nigeria to ensure nothing happens to him.”
