By Okechukwu Nwanguma
As public outrage over Tiger Base in Owerri continues to grow, the Imo State Police Command recently facilitated a tour of the facility for some journalists and civil society actors. While the tour may have been well-intended, it ultimately raised more questions than it answered and inadvertently reinforced public scepticism.
Transparency is not achieved through choreographed access. What occurred at Tiger Base was a guided tour, tightly controlled by the Police Public Relations Officer and the commander of the very unit facing serious allegations of torture, unlawful detention, and killings. Visitors were shown only what the police wanted them to see. Cells were not fully opened for inspection, detainees were not interviewed independently, and no victim was heard in conditions that guaranteed safety, confidentiality, or freedom from intimidation.
Such a process does not amount to accountability. It is a public relations exercise, not oversight.
In detention facilities with a long and documented history of abuse, the power imbalance between detainees and armed officers is profound. Victims cannot be expected to speak freely in the presence – or under the shadow – of their alleged abusers. The possibility that detainees were warned, coached, or threatened ahead of the visit cannot be dismissed. Any process that does not remove alleged perpetrators from the scene and ensure independent access to victims is fundamentally flawed.
Equally troubling was the choice of guides. Allowing a unit commander accused of serious human rights violations to act as host and narrator offends basic principles of natural justice. No one should be a judge or chief witness in their own case. This alone undermines the credibility of whatever narrative was presented during the tour.
Importantly, the tour did not erase Tiger Base’s past. In 2024, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, in Glory Okolie v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, made binding judicial findings that Tiger Base functioned as a torture centre long before the current Anti-Kidnapping Unit. The Court established that in 2021, the Intelligence Response Team operated the same facility as a site of unlawful detention, sexual abuse, extortion, and incommunicado incarceration. These are not allegations; they are facts affirmed by a regional court.
Ironically, the media tour achieved the opposite of what may have been intended. Instead of restoring confidence, it reopened national scrutiny and emboldened many long-silenced victims and families to speak out. Testimonies are emerging precisely because attempts at denial and image laundering have failed to confront the truth.
This moment carries a warning. Continued denial by the Imo State Government and the Nigeria Police – coupled with failure to suspend implicated officers and institute an independent investigation – risks deepening public anger. Nigeria has seen this pattern before. The #EndSARS uprising was not spontaneous; it was the consequence of years of official denial, token gestures, and refusal to hold perpetrators accountable.
Tiger Base cannot be rebranded or cosmetically cleaned up. Torture sites cannot be reformed; they must be shut down. What is required now is an independent, transparent, and victim-centred investigation, enforcement of command responsibility, protection for whistleblowers and survivors, and justice, compensation, and rehabilitation for victims.
The ECOWAS Court has spoken. Victims are speaking. History is watching.
The question is no longer whether abuses occurred, but whether Nigeria will finally choose accountability over denial.
Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma is the Executive Director of RULAAC and writes from Lagos State, Nigeria
