How DSS Threatened, Forced Me To Make Statements – Nnamdi Kanu Reveals

Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was threatened and coerced by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) into making confessional statements following his arrest in 2015.

Kanu made the claims on Wednesday after the prosecution called its third witness, identified only as CCC, who testified that he was part of the DSS team that interrogated the separatist leader between October 21 and November 4, 2015.

NAIJAONPOINT said all interview sessions were video recorded, and that Kanu also wrote statements after each session. The federal government’s counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), submitted two video compact discs (CDs) and three written statements allegedly authored by Kanu as evidence.

Initially, the defence raised no objections. However, Paul Erokoro (SAN), representing Kanu, later opposed the admissibility of the written statements, claiming they were made under duress and without access to legal counsel.

“The DSS denied the defendant access to his lawyer, threatened to deny him bail, and withheld his daily hour of fresh air recommended due to his health condition,” Erokoro told the court.

Justice James Omotosho ordered a trial-within-a-trial to determine whether Kanu’s statements were voluntarily made.

Inside the Trial-Within-a-Trial

During the separate proceeding, DSS witness CCC maintained that Kanu gave the statements voluntarily. Under cross-examination, he admitted he had no direct contact with Kanu inside his detention cell but knew the personnel who did.

Erokoro pressed further: “I put it to you that if any DSS officer named Mr Brown visited the defendant in his cell to threaten him, you won’t know.”

CCC replied: “The DSS does not operate like that.”

Kanu, however, provided his own testimony. He stated that the coercion began in Lagos, where he was chained, blindfolded, and put on a plane without knowing his destination.

On arrival in Abuja, he said he was held in solitary confinement without light.

He accused a DSS officer identified as Mr Brown, reportedly the Assistant Director of Investigations, of threatening him:

“Mr Brown threatened me that if I don’t do what they ask me, they’re going to stop giving me that one-hour break,” Kanu said via his lawyer, referring to a daily one-hour fresh air allowance recommended by the facility’s medical doctor due to his nosebleeds and poor cell conditions.

Prosecution Cross-Examines Kanu

During cross-examination by the prosecution, Kanu alleged that portions of the DSS video interviews played in court had been edited, and that the DSS instructed him on what to write in the statements submitted as evidence.

Following the testimonies, both prosecution and defence teams were directed by the judge to adopt their written addresses and submit them by 9 a.m. on May 29.