On Wednesday, February 16, the Department of Security Services (DSS) revealed why Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who is accused of treasonable felony and terrorism, could not be allowed to wear clothing with a lion’s head symbol.
Mr. Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, brought to the attention of the trial judge, Binta Nyako, the complications witnessed in trying to get new clothes for the IPOB leader at the DSS detention facility in Abuja at the resumption of the trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The DSS’s counsel defended the agency’s decision to deny Nnamdi Kanu a change of clothes, claiming that the clothes sent for the defendant had a lion’s head imprinted on them, which “offend the standard operating procedures”
The lawyer said; “My Lord, clothes that were brought for the defendant had lion’s head embroiled on them, and the defendant (Mr. Kanu) can’t wear clothes with a lion’s head.
“Clothes with lion’s head offend the standard operating procedures,” he said.
Kanu was also said to have insisted on wearing Igbo cultural clothing, which features a lion’s head symbol.