Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, the lead counsel for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has raised the alarm over secret recordings of his meetings and conversations with his client by the officials of the Department of State Services (DSS).
Ejimakor cited an example of how the DSS once mistakenly filed in court, a photograph of him and Kanu taken during one of his meetings with the IPOB leader. He said he and his client always whisper in fear because they don’t know who might be spying on them and recording their conversations.
He said, “We have concerns about the privacy of our conversations. There was a day I was consulting with him (Kanu) with another colleague and they (DSS) took a secret photograph of myself. They accidentally filed that photograph as part of their proof of evidence in court.
We were surprised that they were taking secret photographs of us, and if you go into the room, you will not see any camera. Evidently you have hidden eyes, hidden cameras and everything. What else do they have? Eavesdropping equipment, secret listening devices or what?
“We whisper in fear and sometimes you just have to pull him (Kanu) to say something or even pull yourself out to say something because you are ever afraid someone is somewhere secretly recording you.
How can we conduct effective defence under this condition? It is not possible.”
On whether they are confident that Kanu will get a fair trial, Ejimakor said that their confidence is zero under the current circumstances that encourage profound interference with Kanu’s access to his lawyers and adequate facilities to conduct his defence.
Ejimakor said, “The confidence is zero. Under present circumstances, our confidence is zero.
“There is no way Nnamdi Kanu can get a fair trial under the current conditions of his detention which encourage the profound interference with his access to counsels and adequate facilities to conduct his defence. There is not going to be any fair trial in that kind of scenario. Impossible!”
