A member of the House of Representatives, Obi Aguocha, has expressed grave concern over the deteriorating health condition of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Naijaonpoint reports that Aguocha, who represents Kanu’s constituency, urged President Bola Tinubu to authorise the immediate transfer of the separatist leader from the Department of State Services (DSS) detention facility to a tertiary hospital for urgent medical treatment.
Speaking in an interview with Arise News on Sunday, the lawmaker described Kanu’s condition as alarming and warned that delay in medical attention could result in dire consequences.
“On the 21st of August, I paid a visit to my constituent, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, at the DSS detention. When I met with him, honestly, I thought I was seeing a ghost-like figure,” Aguocha said.
According to him, after his visit, Kanu’s medical team carried out an assessment, and their findings were deeply worrying. The report, he said, revealed that the IPOB leader was suffering from organ insufficiencies and a low progesterone count, among other complications.
The lawmaker stressed that the situation was beyond the capacity of the DSS clinic and required immediate transfer to a specialised medical facility.
Aguocha disclosed that he had since forwarded the medical report to President Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
He said, “We had an intervention of his medical doctors to do a full assessment of him. And their conclusion, which was part of the report that I sent to Mr. President, that I sent to the Attorney General and to my speaker, the conclusion of the report was that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu had organ insufficiencies, including a low progesterone count. You could also recall that during the extraordinary rendition on him, his nose was broken, and so many other issues that arose from that.
“So what I was saying to the Attorney General and to Mr. President and to my speaker was for them to urgently intervene to give him adequate medical treatment, and at the same time, for them to constitute their own panel, government panel, to reassess Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, with a view to look at the medical report that was in existence, which was his own medical report.”
According to him, the Attorney-General had set up a separate medical team to re-evaluate Kanu’s condition, and their findings reportedly confirmed additional health issues not captured by the initial report. The court has also directed the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to conduct an independent evaluation, with its report still pending.
The lawmaker further stated, “The Attorney General actually constituted a medical team to re-evaluate Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Upon their evaluation, they even went further than Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s team of doctors, to also verify that there were other issues that even were not captured by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s doctors.
“So the court in its sitting also instituted another panel of the Nigerian Medical Association to independently verify the other two reports and assess Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. So we are still waiting for the NMA report to be made available to the court, so that we can look at how far he has gone into the deterioration of his health. But Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, we should not be under any illusion, is sick.
“What we are requesting for Mr. President is for him to intervene, to have DSS transfer Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from a primary healthcare-type facility to an adequate tertiary health facility anywhere in the country, so that his health can be managed effectively. Otherwise, if by providence that they allow Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to continue to deteriorate and he dies in detention, it would be catastrophic and volatile, especially in the Southeast, for them to manage.”
He stressed that Kanu, who has not been convicted of any crime, remains entitled to the same fundamental human rights as any other Nigerian, including the right to proper medical care.
Aguocha added, “What we want is for the government to be circumspect about it and look at it critically, that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has a fundamental human right. He has neither been convicted for any crime in Nigeria. The same rights that should be availed to me or to any other Nigerian should also be accorded to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. His health is very paramount and must be treated accordingly.
“I used the word on the verge of death because of the deteriorating conditions, as were assessed by his own doctors. And if we continue to allow him to stay in that condition, unmanaged, and not given adequate medical treatment, then what we are invariably saying is that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is going to be on the verge of death, which was why I urgently said, please, take this man away from the DSS treatment facility, which can be compared, at best, to a primary health facility. They will not be able to give him adequate treatment. That was why I specifically requested for him to be taken to an adequate tertiary health facility, where he can be given multiple attention on multiple issues to be treated. It’s best for Nnamdi Kanu to be alive than to be dead. Even the judge in the matter said it’s best for him. It’s only somebody who is alive that can stand trial.”
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