The outcry over Imo police’s Tiger Base

THE anti-kidnapping unit of the Imo State Police Command, widely known as Tiger Base, has recently been attracting outcries. Those who have had encounters with it have been telling stories of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. They detailed disturbing accounts of human rights violations, torture and death. They described those experiences as “walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” Perhaps as a manifestation of the horror of their detention experience, many ex-detainees kept sealed lips following their release from Tiger Base, afraid for their lives. For those who volunteered information, it was a grisly tale of torture, extortion, and extrajudicial killings. In a report facilitated by the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), one Chinonso, who claimed to have been one of the survivors brave enough to share her harrowing experience, said: “I was detained for three months. My brother repeatedly tried to bail me out, but the police told him that they wouldn’t release me until I confessed. I didn’t know what they wanted me to confess to. I was locked up in a room without ventilation. The heat was too much, and most of us in detention had rashes all over our bodies. There were women I met in the cell and even though I spent three months there, I still left them behind.”

According to Chinonso, who was arrested in 2024 after her phone was stolen while charging, “They (Tiger Base police) said my stolen phone and SIM had to do with a murder case. I was not allowed to write a statement for three months. My mother, a widow, wrote a petition to a human rights organisation, and that was when my case turned around.” Another victim, Reverend Onyekwere Elemuwa, alleged that he lost his 34-year-old nephew, Ekene Francis Elemuwa, inside the Tiger Base premises. His allegation: “Ekene was hale and healthy when he was arrested, but he was later brought out in a body bag. On the 28th of August 2023, at about 8:00 pm, Ekene went out with his friend, Ikemba. They were taken to Tiger Base. The following day, Ekene was asked to contact his family, but the police refused. On September 4, he died. His cellmates insisted that it was his corpse that the police carried out. The police seized his phone and did not allow him to contact his family. They did not arraign him in court. We still do not know his offence or why he was arrested and detained. Ekene’s family only learnt of his death through a former detainee who had been released. When they approached the police, they were initially denied information. Inspector Moses, Ekene’s IPO, refused to answer questions about his case file or offence. Even now, we do not know where his corpse is. The police said he became sick in detention, was taken to the hospital, and then died. But when I asked if he died inside the police cell, the police vehicle, or the hospital, they did not answer.” The family also claimed that despite sending petitions to the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, it was yet to receive answers on what befell its son.

Allegations that Tiger Base is a den of impunity are rife, pointing to gross violations of the law and human rights abuses. Survivors also claim that while in the police detention, they were exposed to starvation, forced confessions, and threats to keep silent. Indeed, worried by the spate of reported killings, torture and other forms of dehumanization allegedly meted out to Nigerians, especially South-Easterners by operatives of Tiger Base, 35 civil society organisations petitioned the Senate on the matter last week. The petition was signed by RULAAC; Spaces for Change, Lagos; Elixir Trust Foundation, Benue State; Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development, Abia State; World Impact Development Foundation; Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication, llorin; Imam Mahdi Foundation for Global Peace, and 30 others. The petition, which was addressed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, through the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, was entitled, ‘Urgent Call for the Senate’s Investigation into Human Rights Violations by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command, Tiger Base.’ It read in part: “We, the undersigned, hereby submit this petition to urgently bring to your attention the alarming activities of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command, located at Tiger Base. The operations of this unit have been reported to be far worse than those of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad, with numerous documented instances of egregious human rights violations.

“Over the past one week, a serialised investigative journalism report (herewith attached), supported by testimonies from victims and survivors, has highlighted the atrocities committed and which must be thoroughly reviewed. The report reveals shocking accounts by victims, survivors, relatives of victims and survivors, activists and human rights defenders and witnesses of egregious human rights atrocities, corruption and flagrant abuse of power sustained by impunity and the failure of the police and police oversight authorities to investigate the allegations and ensure accountability and justice. The report was also based on responses by the Nigeria Police, Correctional Services, the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, the Police Service Commission, and the National Human Rights Commission, among other respondents. Tiger Base, as the notorious police unit has come to be generally known, was set up to tackle incidents of violent crimes, but the activities of the unit bear no resemblance to the requirements of the law or professional policing standards. Instead, the unit’s activities and methods evoke the sad memories of the disbanded SARS which was notable for unchecked acts of violence and brutality, eventually sparking the spontaneous nationwide citizens’ revolt in October 2020 against police brutality.”

We are horrified by these endless claims of abuses which portray the particular police station as a terror division. We call on the authorities to investigate the allegations and publish their findings. We also urge the authorities to act fast because the country, with its delicate social balance today, can hardly afford to record another mass protest against police brutality. In 2020, tired of alleged brutality by men of the defunct SARS, Nigerian youths rose in protest, bringing the country to its knees. A repeat might not be palatable. Human rights are sacrosanct and they should not be suppressed by anyone. Security agents who are paid by the state from taxpayers’ funds cannot be allowed to continually turn on the same taxpayers, treating them like animals.

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