Nnamdi Kanu: Court Gives NMA Eight Days To Verify Health Status

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday directed the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to set up a medical panel within eight days to determine the health status of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Justice James Omotosho in a ruling on Friday, ordered the NMA President to constitute a team of between eight and ten medical experts, including a cardiologist, a neurologist, and the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, to assess Kanu’s condition.

The judge also mandated that the panel’s findings be submitted within the eight-day window to guide a decision on whether Kanu should be moved to the National Hospital for treatment.

The panel, he added, would be free to examine facilities at the Department of State Services (DSS) hospital to ascertain if it could adequately handle Kanu’s medical needs, and may also draw on resources from any hospital in the country for its investigation.

The order followed conflicting medical reports from the DSS medical team and Kanu’s private consultants.

While the DSS doctors, led by Dr. Mohammed Nasir, insisted his ailments could be managed in their facility, Kanu’s private consultant, Professor Martin Aghaji of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, argued that his condition had worsened and required urgent transfer to the National Hospital, or even treatment abroad.

Counsel for the Federal Government, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, dismissed Aghaji’s recommendation as exaggerated and questioned his decision to alter Kanu’s medication without clearance from DSS doctors who had handled his treatment for four years.

He further opposed Kanu’s transfer, saying it could disrupt services and create security risks, while stressing that the federal government remained committed to safeguarding the detainee and granting him access to experts of his choice within DSS custody.

However, Kanu’s lead counsel, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, maintained that the transfer request was based on genuine medical findings and argued that the DSS lacked the facilities to manage his client’s ailments.

He welcomed the NMA’s intervention, provided it was ordered by the court, noting that it was in the interest of justice that Kanu remained alive to face the terrorism charges against him.