By Okechukwu Nwanguma
For years, Imo State’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit – popularly known as Tiger Base – has operated like a state-sanctioned torture chamber.
What began as a special operations outfit has degenerated into a notoriously unaccountable structure sustained by illegal arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, extortion, and extrajudicial killings. Yet, despite repeated public outcry, petitions, and incontrovertible evidence, the Nigerian authorities have remained criminally silent.
The atrocities are not isolated incidents; they form a consistent pattern – well-documented, widely known, and dangerously normalised.
Izuchukwu Madueke: Arrest Without Crime, Bail for Sale
In December 2023, RULAAC received a distress call from a woman whose husband, Izuchukwu Madueke, had been abducted at dawn by Tiger Base operatives because a business associate used the police unit to settle a civil dispute. Despite the Commander’s confirmation that the matter was unfounded, operatives still extorted ₦200,000 before releasing him.
The same unit had earlier tortured and extorted young men arrested “in error” at an ATM gallery in Owerri. Even after admitting they were innocent, the officers demanded money for their release. Their bodies bore machete wounds inflicted to force false confessions of cultism.
RULAAC petitioned the Inspector-General of Police in January 2023. Nothing changed.
Christian Kelechi: One Month in Secret Detention, Bail Negotiated Like Ransom
In June 2025, RULAAC petitioned the Commander regarding the case of Christian Kelechi Chiwuziem, a 43-year-old hotel driver who was arrested without cause and held incommunicado for weeks. The IPO demanded ₦500,000 for his release – despite the Commander reportedly ordering that he be freed. Christian’s family was told bluntly that without payment, “he will die there.”
The Murder of Japheth Njoku: Tortured to Death, Evidence Suppressed
On 5 May 2025, Japheth Njoku – an innocent man with a decade-long record as a market security official – was tortured to death inside Tiger Base. His alleged accuser had no record of ever reporting theft. Witnesses testified that he maintained his innocence until his last breath.
What followed was a cover-up.
Tiger Base operatives pressured witnesses.
They attempted to manipulate case files.
They have continued to defy court orders and repeatedly sabotage the autopsy mandated by the Coroner’s Court.
For months, the homicide department – acting under the influence of Tiger Base – continued to raise frivolous objections to block the examination of Japheth’s body.
The Commissioner of Police himself was unaware of Japheth’s killing a week after it occurred. The family’s daily search ended five days after his death, when the truth could no longer be hidden.
Onuocha Johnbosco: Enforced Disappearance and Possible Extrajudicial Killing
In June 2025, RULAAC petitioned the Inspector-General over another chilling case:
Johnbosco was abducted from his business by armed men who looted his office.
Police stations denied knowledge of his arrest.
Tiger Base operatives denied holding him – until confronted with witnesses.
The Commander later admitted that he “died while trying to escape.”
His corpse has never been produced.
His family home was burnt twice, allegedly by the same operatives.
The Command’s official public narrative – claiming a shoot-out with IPOB – contradicted eyewitness accounts and the facts.
A Dangerous Pattern – and a Brewing Public Revolt
The Nigerian Police Force cannot pretend that these are isolated excesses. Tiger Base has become a rogue institution, operating outside the law and turning human lives into commodities for ransom. Innocent citizens disappear into its cells; some return with broken bones, some return as corpses, and many never return at all.
This is the same model of impunity that sparked the 2020 EndSARS protests.
Yet, five years later, the authorities are watching history repeat itself – this time in Imo State.
The silence of the Police Service Commission, the IGP, the National Human Rights Commission, and state authorities amounts to complicity. When institutions designed to protect the public become instruments of terror, people will naturally resort to self-help. A society pushed to the wall will always push back.
The Government Must Act – Now
Before another nationwide outrage erupts, Nigeria must decisively dismantle the criminal network embedded within Tiger Base. This requires:
1. Immediate suspension and arrest of officers implicated in torture, extortion, and killings.
2. Independent investigation by the Police Service Commission and the NHRC.
3. Full implementation of the Anti-Torture Act and the Police Act 2020.
4. Protection for whistle-blowers, witnesses, and victims’ families.
5. Transparent prosecution of all those responsible for Japheth’s death, Christian’s unlawful detention, Johnbosco’s disappearance, and countless unreported atrocities.
The police in Imo State have crossed every moral and legal boundary. Their conduct now threatens public peace, national stability, and the legitimacy of law enforcement.
If authorities continue to look away, they will have no one but themselves to blame when public anger finally erupts.
