Juliana Francis
The Rule of Law Accountability and Advocacy Centre has called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Dr. Solomon Arase, to as a matter of urgency halt the routine and discriminate arrests and detention of countless Imo State residents by operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Tiger Base, Owerri under the Imo State Police Command.
The Executive Director of RULAAC, Okwchukwu Nwanguma, made the demand following a voice note in circulation.
The voice note narrated the chilling story of “what is happening in Imo State”.
According to the person who recorded the voice note, on Sunday night, he and three other men with him in his car were intercepted, labelled members of the Eastern Security Network, the armed wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra, and arrested.
He said they were smart to have made calls to some people before their phones were seized from them.
They were driven to and detained at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command located at Tiger Base.
His words: “We were detained in the cell until the next morning.
“By the next morning, being Monday, two of the persons in the cell had died.
“By the night of the same Monday, two other cellmates had also died.
“By the next day, Tuesday, one person died.
“Worse of all, relatives of most of the people in the cell do not know their whereabouts and nobody comes for them.
“In a few cases where relatives of detained persons find out and come to the base to inquire about them, the operatives would first deny or demand huge sums of money for bail.
“Before they negotiate bail with the relatives, they would first send the detainee’s name to the Government House, which will forward the name to the detainee’s local government and then to his community and political ward to ascertain if he’s a member of the APC (All Progressives Congress) before they will accept money to release him.
READ ALSO:
Tinubu celebrates Methodist Prelate Emeritus Makinde at 80
Ifon, Ilobu Communal Clash: Osun reduces 24-hour curfew
Gov. Adeleke to Bayelsans: Don’t change a winning team
“This is happening daily in Imo State.
“On Monday morning, being the next day after we were arrested and detained, two boys arrested in Ehime Mbano were also brought to our cell.
“The boys narrated to us that they were walking along the road when, suddenly, they saw a police vehicle double-cross them, policemen alighted and ordered them into their vehicle.
“They drove them straight to the Tiger Base, Owerri.
“No relatives knew about their arrest or their whereabouts.
“On Tuesday, a member of the Imo State House of Assembly (simply identified as Mola), who is my friend came to bail us.
“The operatives demanded N500,000 for each of us to be ‘bailed’.
“The member came for us because we were able to make calls before our phones were seized.
“Many others are languishing in the cell, starving, looking emaciated and dying in turn like infected chickens because their relatives do not know where they are.
“Before the visit by the State Assembly member, our relatives said they were expecting phone calls from the people who snatched us, whether they were kidnappers – to demand ransom, or police officers – to ask us to come and let us know what our offence was, if any, and what they intended to do.
“When the Assembly member came, he was asked if we were members of APC and he answered that we were (even though he knew we were not).
“He only said that to secure our bail because of our relationship.
“This was how we were released.
“Before we were released, I witnessed when a relative of one of the boys arrested from Ehime Mbano came and inquired about his relative from the operatives and they asked for his name, which he gave, but they denied having him in their custody even though they were with us in the cell.
“The day after we were released, I sent someone to go to Tiger Base and insist that his relation was with them.
“They eventually owned up and he was eventually released after a rigorous and tortuous process.
“Otherwise, he would have been dumped and abandoned to rot and die in the cell without anybody knowing his whereabouts and fate.
“This is how people are being killed daily at the Tiger Base, Owerri, Imo State.
“When we told them, during interrogation, that we were from Ekwerazu, Ahiazu Mbaise, they said: ‘Oh, everybody in that area belongs to the ESN!’
“And this explains their attitude and treatment of people who they arrest.
“They undressed us and searched our bodies for bodily marks, which they use as a basis to label people ESN members.”
READ ALSO:
I almost suffered heart attack over news on Gowon’s death – Clark
Death Penalty: Seven Nigerians executed — ASF France
Contributory Pension Scheme: Pension assets hit N16.76trn
Nwanguma said that several people, especially young people, are arrested daily in Imo State, detained, tortured and starved until they die based mostly on unsubstantiated allegations of being members of the ESN.
He added: “Several petitions and reports about the atrocities going on at Tiger Base have been ignored and the atrocities continue unchecked and unabated.
“Even if the claims by the man in the voice note summarised above cannot be verified, the patterns described are consistent with and lend credence to the pattern’s characteristic of several verified cases before and in recent times.”
He also recalled that on October 4, 2023, RULAAC received information from a woman, Chinyerem, who said her husband is a borehole installer and a Keke NAPEP (tricycle) driver.
She reported about her son, whose whereabouts have been unknown after he was arrested by people she suspects are from the Tiger Base.
Chinyerem narrated: “My husband went to Owerri, Imo State for a borehole job.
“He went with one of his workers.
“On their way back, at Seven and Half Junction, they met police officers who were stopping and searching everyone.
“This is how they stopped them.
“After searching them, they asked the guy he went with, to remove his clothes, which he did.
“They saw marks on his chest and asked him to turn his back.
“The same mark was also found on his back.
“This is how they carried him inside their police car and zoomed off.
“Since that day, 19th September, 2023, we have been going from one police station in Owerri to another and searching for him, yet no answer.
“My poor husband has been crying and practically losing his mind.
“The boy’s relatives don’t even want to listen to us.
“We heard it was Tiger Base police officers who took him.
“Please help me.
“I am devastated and confused.”
When asked if she had confirmed that those who arrested her son came from Tiger Base, Chinyerem responded: “We heavily suspect Tiger Base.
“This is because we pleaded with a policeman we know to please check if he is in State CID, Owerri.
“He said he did not see him.
“He was in fact the one that referred us to Tiger Base.
“He said they are notorious for arresting persons with dreadlocks and marks on their bodies.”
RULAAC has contacted the Imo State Police Command Public Relations Officer, but he has yet to respond to the request for him to find out from Tiger Base if the missing boy was there.
Also, Glory Okorie was detained for weeks at Tiger Base and turned into a slave girl.
Her family members did not know where she was and were going from one Police Station to another, including Tiger Base, in search of her.
All the stations denied having her until a detainee released from the Tiger Base went to inform her family.
Rather than release her, they transferred her to the Abuja Headquarters of the IRT, where she was further detained for several months in disregard of the court orders for her release.
She was eventually arraigned and granted bail after over 100 days in custody.
Operatives from Tiger Base arrested two young men at a bank ATM in Owerri where they went to withdraw money one evening.
Without informing them what offence they may have committed or other reason for their arrest, they searched them and found nothing incriminating and took them to the Tiger Base, where they detained them without obtaining their statements until the next morning when they brought them out and tortured them to admit that they were members of a secret cult.
Nwanguma said that they subjected them to duress in a bid to compel them to sign a pre-written statement admitting to a crime they knew nothing about.
He said: “They were saved when RULAAC received the information about their detention and immediately contacted the Officer in Charge at Tiger Base who checked and found out that the young men were ‘arrested in error’ in his own words.
“Yet, the operatives extorted huge sums of money before releasing them.
“They warned them not to reveal to anyone that they paid money and threatened to re-arrest them and charge them to court if they did.”
RULAAC then called on the Chairman of the Police Service Commission to: “Order an investigation into the operations of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Tiger Base, Owerri, Imo State to overhaul the operations of the unit and bring its operations in line with Professional Policing Standards for responsible and accountable policing.”
RULAAC also wants the PSC to investigate the conduct of the Commander and other operatives of the Unit, their involvement in human rights violations, corrupt practices, partisanship and other misconduct as well as the dereliction by the Commissioner of Police in carrying out oversight on the activities of the unit, including ignoring complaints sent to him regarding specific misconduct by the Commander and other operatives of the unit.
Nwanguma urged the commission to take appropriate disciplinary actions against those found responsible for human rights violations, corrupt practice, misconduct and dereliction of duty.
“If the Unit is not to be disbanded, ensure periodic inspection of the cells of the Unit to ensure that they do not remain concentration camps where human dignity is violated and life terminated,” said Nwanguma.