In this third part of the investigation into atrocities of Tiger Base Police personnel under the Imo State Police Command, JULIANA FRANCIS further shares more materials exposing corruption in the Unit and also speaks with human rights lawyers on the extant laws being violated by the operatives.
Contravention Of Extant Laws By Tiger Base Police Personnel
Speaking on police, torture, and extrajudicial killings, the President of the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network, Enugu State, Olu Omotayo, said that courts in Nigeria have taken judicial notice of this problem. He said in the case of Joshua V. State (2010) 1W.R.N. 41 page 72 paragraphs 30 – 45, the Court of Appeal, per Denton-West, JCA, stated thus: “Extra-judicial killings by policemen should henceforth stop, for it is not only undemocratic, but it also is barbaric and wicked and unless you are a relation of a victim, is only then, one would appreciate the agony, trauma and torture, this intentional extra-judicial killings by policemen have caused the citizenry in Nigeria. These few officers instead of carrying out their functions of arrest, investigation, possible prosecution, and maintenance of peace, would rather constitute themselves to play the role of the Judge or Court and proceed to execute indiscriminately according to their whims and caprices, people in their custody.”
Omotayo stated that perpetrators of extrajudicial killings are liable to be prosecuted for murder. He stressed that the big problem is that authorities have looked the other way and closed their eyes to the heinous crimes being perpetrated by security agents, hence the rising cases of extrajudicial killings and torture.
He explained that the Anti-Torture Act 2017 is a comprehensive law and a good attempt by the legislature to combat the menacing monster known as torture, but the Nigerian State has not shown the will to apply this law for the benefit of the citizenry. His words: “Section 8, Anti-Torture Act 2017; provides punishment of 25 years imprisonment for a person who commits torture. Section 6, of the Anti-Torture Act 2017; provides that a person arrested, detained or under custodial investigation has the right to demand a physical and psychological examination by an independent and competent doctor of his choice after interrogation.”
One practice at Tiger Base is arresting a person in lieu, contravening Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA). Similarly, extortion by Tiger Base Police personnel is covered under Sections 99 and 408 of the Criminal Code Act in Nigeria. Section 35(4) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) mandates that any person arrested or detained must be brought before a court of law within a reasonable time: Within 24 hours. Sections 296 and 294 of the ACJA 2015 buttress the argument of detention, demanding detention should not exceed 14 days without a court order. The Police Act 2020 emphasises human rights protections during arrests and detentions.
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This reporter observed that a staggering number of suspects that are being held in Tiger Base Police or have gone through that station are alleged to be members, brothers, fathers, friends, supporters, mothers, wives, or girlfriends of IPOB members.
Samuel Akpologun, a lawyer, is the Executive Director of Open Society On Justice Reform Project, an organisation with a mission to ensure access to fast and efficient justice by all. He said that the legal status of self-determination movements like IPOB is a complex issue under both Nigeria and international law. Akpologun explained that the right to self-determination is recognised in international law, particularly in treaties like the United Nations Charter. Also, the International Convention on Civil and People’s Rights, Article 1. Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights talks about the right to self-determination and further talks about instances where that self-determination can be expressed.
Akpologun added: “These international treaties, these legal instruments affirm that all people have the right to self-determination, including the right to freely determine their political status and pursue economic, social, and cultural development. However, the right is generally understood within the framework of decolonisation or a situation of severe oppression, like the issue of Apartheid in South Africa. It does not, however, automatically translate to a right of or right to secession, which I think that IPOB is trying to canvas for.”
Law enforcement officers are now weaponising the proscription of IPOB to enrich themselves, and that practice has become a contagion, spreading to different parts of Police Commands in the South East. SaharaReporters in February 2025 reported how policemen in Enugu State kidnapped a businessman, threatened to label him an IPOB member if he refused to cough up some money, and ended up extorting N62 million from him.
The report stated: “A disturbing trend of labelling high-profile victims as members of IPOB or Eastern Security Network (ESN) has emerged within the Enugu Command of the Nigeria Police Force. This tactic is allegedly used to extort large sums of money from the victims.”
A report: “Unveiling the Roots of Insecurity, Healing the Wounds of Human Rights Violations in Southeast Nigeria,” by Action Group On Free Civic Space and Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, says that Nigeria’s Criminal Justice System is plagued by a pervasive cancer of corruption, discrimination and human rights abuses, especially in the South East, where a culture of impunity allows these violations to flourish. The report further stated that basic rights enshrined in both international and Nigerian law, such as the right to a swift court appearance, legal counsel, family contact, and due process, are routinely disregarded or poorly enforced.
The report said: “In Imo State, for example, the police, particularly the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (Tiger Base), act with impunity. Torture, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are commonplace. They often resort to ‘dragnet’ tactics, targeting entire communities rather than individuals based on suspicion. Suspects are routinely pressured to pay for their release, and those who can’t afford it risk being labelled ‘IPOB members’ – a designation that further diminishes their rights and increases their vulnerability to torture, detention in abysmal conditions, and even death. To extract quick confessions, officers often subject detainees to torture and hold them in inhumane conditions, denying them access to medical care, family, and legal representation. This brutal system has claimed countless lives, with estimates suggesting over 2,000 people have been executed or disappeared at the hands of the police since 2015. Thousands more languish in prison, their lives shattered by false confessions and an overburdened judicial system that fails to provide fair trials.”
Information Exposing Protracted Extortion, Corruption At Tiger Base Police
While police personnel are being transferred and posted out of their various stations across the country, most at Tiger Base are sitting tight. A recurring name is the Officer in Charge of the Tiger Base Police, now a Chief Superintendent of Police, Odeyeyiwa Oladimeji, said to have been there for over five years.
This reporter got hold of WhatsApp chats dating as far back as 2021, further supporting arguments of corruption and extortion actively taking place at Tiger Base Police.
Below are conversations between an activist, who wishes to remain anonymous, and OC Oladimeji, dating back to 2021. These are the selected ones and unedited.
CONVERSATION HELD ON 6TH OF AUGUST 2022
6/8/22, 11:35 AM – Activist: Good morning SP Ola. Plus, I bring to your notice the unlawful arrest and detention of Excellence Nwamadi and Ozumba Chibuzor by your officers led by Officer Chidiebere Onuoha.
The information available to us suggests that they were arrested after leaving a POS shop where they went to make a withdrawal. Your officers have not allowed them to contact their lawyers or family members since Friday.
The sister came to check on them and was driven back when it appeared they were tortured with bruises on their body.
I have always believed in due process, and I give you notice of this case so that you can investigate this matter. I am aware there is no petition against them just random arrest. Pls, Investigate this Sir. Ozumba Chibuzor Gideon is a second-year student of IMSU
6/8/22, 11:44 AM – OC Anti Kidnapping Imo SP Ola: Noted please, direct the sister to me you can give her my number
6/8/22, 11:45 AM – Activist: Ok. Thanks. She will come with the father immediately
6/8/22, 2:04 PM – Activist: She is close by
6/8/22, 2:21 PM – OC Anti Kidnapping Imo SP Ola: Ok
6/8/22, 3:00 PM – Activist: Pls the Lady Sarah Ozuba is waiting at the Counter to see you.
6/8/22, 7:41 PM – Activist: Good evening SP, pls I want to inform you that the allegations levelled against Gideon Ozuba and Excellent Nwamadi are not true. EbubeAgu arrested them along Ogbosisi in Umuguma where they just stepped out of POS.
The EbubeAgu threatened to implicate them if they fail to give them money. They collected their ATM and was communicating with his family that they will be released that evening.
What brought them to your office is because they refused to part with money. Now under torture your officer is saying they made a confessional statement. Please, I appeal to you to interrogate this fact and bring the suspects to tell you the truth. Nobody will be said to have made free confession without his Lawyer or family being present.
I suggest, you don’t listen to one side of the case. The PPRO told me you said they were suspected to be the arsonist that burnt Umuguma Police station.
How? From which investigation and where were they arrested under which circumstances. Pls review the file and see if you can objectively deal with this case. Thank you.
6/8/22, 8:03 PM – O C Anti Kidnapping Imo SP Ola: You need to come around when you’re less busy
CONVERSATION HELD 6TH OF OCTOBER 2022
6/10/22, 11:38 AM – Activist: Good morning SP Ola. My colleague gave me update of yesterday’s meeting and his findings. Pls, I want to know the identity of the DSS Officer involved in the arrest so I can revert back to the Director.
Again, I wish to thank you and your officers for fighting crime in Imo State. I also wish to stress that no innocent person deserves to be treated like a criminal if not connected with criminality.
I will forward the video of the Mother of Gideon Uzoba whom the daughter said gave his son those mark on the body. Compare and contrast if it is enough to incriminate him. The evidence given by a suspect in your detention about the mark on the body is not enough to incriminate anybody. I have drafted the following point to my colleague for a review.
6/10/22, 11:39 AM – Activist: once again, I have reservations to the opinion of Police that DSS is part of the EbubeAgu that brought that Gideon Ozuba.
1. Does it mean DSS does not have detention cell or what?
2. Why keeping him in Police cell to be beaten before alleging so many other crimes against him.
3. If truly he is linked to any membership of any proscribed organization because of the mark on his body, which criminal activity did he participate that made them arrest him and who are his case mates?
4. Is it enough to bring out a suspect who has been in Tiger Base detention to be identifying person’s with traditional mark as criminals?
Like I told you, these guys were arrested immediately they stepped out of POS machine near Ogbosisi. Bearing traditional mark on one’s body is not enough to incriminate a Nigerian citizen.
6/10/22, 12:48 PM – OC Anti Kidnapping Imo SP Ola: Is it bcos of marks they’re arrested? No. They’re we’re {sic} arrested by the DSS base on intel later transfer to us for further investigation in which co accused to be among of them ESN even in front of your colleague you sent yesterday. it’s unfortunate you’re in Lagos you don’t know activities of this boy. I have told your colleagues to exercise patient let’s further our investigation
CONVERSATION HELD ON 15TH OF NOVEMBER 2022
11/15/22, 5:29 PM – Activist: Good evening, OC Ola. How are you doing? Pls I want to bring to your notice a case that was forwarded to me a while ago.
11/15/22, 5:53 PM – Activist: The anti-kidnapping squad arrested my cousin that he is a kidnapper. He was going to withdraw money from an ATM or Pos to pay an electrician that worked for him. While driving with the electrician, they were stopped by the squad who arrested them and took them to state CID Owerri since yesterday.
He is a law graduate awaiting law school. We are really afraid what may happen to him. His name is Obioma Ihediohanma. Please assist.
11/15/22, 6:03 PM – Activist: Pls Sir, I was just informed now that the person that arrested him is Officer Promise… Pls help to verify which allegations is levelled against Mr Obioma Ihediohamma
11/15/22, 6:06 PM – OC Anti Kidnapping Imo SP Ola: I learnt that they’re with military
11/15/22, 6:07 PM – Activist: Military arrested them?
CONVERSATION HELD ON 16TH OF NOVEMBER 2022
11/16/22, 10:18 AM – Activist: Good morning OC.
Pls Mr. Asemonye and the wife is coming to your office now to ensure the release of Mr. Obioma Ihediohamma and his Technician together with his vehicle.
Thanks.
11/16/22, 3:14 PM – Activist: Oga Ola, I am still not sure if Mr Obioma Ihediohamma and his Technician have been released. Even the people that came to bail them are not picking up calls.
11/16/22, 3:15 PM – Activist: 0803… this is Mr Obioma Ihediohamma number, his line is still off. If he is released, his line should be active
11/16/22, 3:44 PM – Activist: Ok, I can confirm that they have been released.
CONVERSATION HELD ON 10TH OF OCTOBER 2023
10/10/23, 1:35 PM – Activist: Rule Of Law And Accountability Advocacy Centre- RULAAC: RULAAC Calls On The Inspector-General Of Police And The Chairman Of The Police Service Commission To End Routine And Indiscriminate Arrests, Indefinite Detention Incommunicado, In Dehumanizing Conditions; Torture, Extortion, Extrajudicial Killings And Enforced Disappearances Of Countless Imo Residents At The Dungeon Of The Anti-Kidnapping Unit, ‘Tiger Base’, Owerri, With The Imo State Police Authority’s And State Government’s Condonation
A man in a voice note currently in circulation narrates the chilling story of “what is happening in Imo State”.
His report can be summarised thus: on Sunday night, he and 3 other men with him in his car were intercepted, labelled Eastern Security Network (ESN) members and arrested.
He said they were smart to have made calls to some people before their phones were seized. They were driven to and detained at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command located at Tiger Base.
“We were detained in the cell until the next morning. By the next morning, being Monday, 2 of the persons in the cell had died. By the night of the same Monday, 2 other cellmates had also died. By the next day, Tuesday, 1 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 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 before they will accept money to release him. 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 and policemen alighted and ordered them into their vehicle and 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 500 thousand Naira 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, and looking emaciated and dying in turns like infected chickens because their relatives do not know where they are.
Prior to 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 offense 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 actually 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 on a daily basis 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.
Several people, especially young people are arrested on a daily basis in Imo State, detained, tortured and starved until they die based, mostly, on unsubstantiated allegations of being members of ESN. But all Imo residents cannot belong to ESN!
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 patterns characteristic of several verified cases before and in recent times.
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 has been unknown after he was arrested by people she suspects are from the Tiger Base.
Chinyerem said: 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 that 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 own police car and zoomed off. Since that day, being 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 is Tiger Base police officers that carried him. Please help me. I am devastated and confused.”
When asked if she has confirmed that those who arrested her son came from Tiger Base, she responded: “Sir, we heavily suspect Tiger base. This is because we pleaded with a policeman we know to please check if he was 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 said it has contacted the Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, “but he is yet to respond to our request on him to find out from Tiger Base”.
Glory Okolie was detained for weeks at Tiger Base and turned to a slave girl. Her family members did not know where she was and were going from one Police Station to another (including the 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 Intelligence Response Team, where she was further detained for several months in disregard of 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 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. 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.
They were saved when RULAAC received the information about their detention and immediately contacted the Officer in Charge (O/C) 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 called on the Chairman, Police Service Commission to: Order an investigation into the operations of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Tiger Base, Owerri, Imo State with a view to overhauling the operations of the unit and bringing its operations in line with Professional Policing Standards for responsible and accountable policing;
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;
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.
The report was signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma, the Executive Director of RULAAC.
Note: Some detainees who spoke with the reporter requested their real names should not be used to avoid being rearrested or targeted by operatives of the Tiger Base.
. This report was supported by the Rule Of Law And Accountability Advocacy Centre as part of its interventions in the insecurity ravaging the South East and its impact on human rights, the civic space and development.
To be continued.
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