By Okechukwu Nwanguma
On January 13, 2023, the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) issued yet another public call to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to investigate the horrific and ongoing human rights violations by operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit at Tiger Base, Owerri, Imo State.
The conduct of this unit mirrors everything that led to the disbandment of SARS in 2020 — illegal arrests, incommunicado detention, torture, extortion, and total disregard for due process.
In late December 2022, RULAAC received credible information regarding two young men unlawfully arrested by the Anti-Kidnapping Unit. Their alleged crime? None was stated. These men were simply picked up from an ATM stand along Wetheral Road, Owerri, searched, found with nothing incriminating, and bundled into a police convoy that led them straight to Tiger Base. Their vehicles were driven by the officers.
Upon arrival, they were held without charge, denied access to legal counsel or family, and their phones were seized. It wasn’t until the following day that they were brought out to give statements, only to be pressured into falsely confessing to being cultists. One of them, a fresh law graduate awaiting law school, explained he had simply gone to withdraw cash to pay the second young man, his electrician. For this, they were brutally tortured. Machetes were used to flog them on their backs. They were told to confess to crimes they did not commit — or suffer worse.
Their rescue came by chance. One of the men recognised a former schoolmate now serving in the unit. He discreetly passed along his brother’s number, which led to RULAAC’s intervention. When we contacted the Officer-in-Charge, Supol Ola, he confirmed the arrest and claimed it was a mistake.
But the horror didn’t stop there. The men were eventually released — but only after being asked to pay N500,000.
After their release, RULAAC spoke with the victims and learned that many others remain in detention at Tiger Base under similar or worse conditions. Some detainees are nursing untreated gunshot wounds, starving, held without charges for weeks or months, and denied any contact with the outside world. The pattern is familiar — and deeply disturbing.
We had written to the Imo State Commissioner of Police at the time, Ahmed Barde, but he offered no response. Silence in the face of these reports is not just unprofessional — it is dangerous. It sends a message that impunity reigns and officers can do as they please without accountability.
The Anti-Kidnapping Unit in Imo State has become a symbol of everything the #EndSARS protests sought to end. The continued silence of police authorities enables these abuses to persist.
We therefore call on the Inspector-General of Police to:
- Immediately order an independent investigation into the operations of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Tiger Base, Imo State.
- Identify and sanction officers involved in arbitrary arrests, torture, extortion, and illegal detention.
- Ensure that all detainees held without charge are either released or charged with a court order by the law.
- Publicly reassert the police’s obligation to uphold the Constitution, particularly the rights to liberty, dignity, and fair hearing.
The promises of reform made in the aftermath of #EndSARS cannot be hollow. Nigeria cannot afford a return to the dark era of unchecked brutality by those meant to protect and serve.
The time to act is now, not when more lives are lost or shattered.
Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma is a human rights activist in Nigeria and also the Executive Director, RULAAC.
