Stop Extra-Judicial Killing, Torture In Imo State, Scrap Tiger Base, Group Tells Hope Uzodimma

By Grace Hygie-Enwerem

A people-centred organization, known as OGANIHU has charged the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma under whose watch extra judicial practices allegedly took place, to wade into the atrocities of officers and men of the Nigeria Police “Tiger Base” unit at the Imo Police Command.

In a petition jointly signed on behalf of the group by Prof. Chijioke Uwasomba and Dr. Chido Onumah, OGANIHU has highlighted the various incidents of what

it called grave human rights violations at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Imo State Command, popularly known as Tiger Base.

The group gave the background and pattern of violations particularly between 2021 and 2025 as revealed by extensive documentation from survivors, families, legal practitioners, journalists and civil society investigators.

According to them, findings pointed to systematic torture and cruel inhuman and degrading treatment, extra-judicial executions and deaths in custody, enforced disappearances, prolonged arbitrary detention without charge, large-scale extortion of detainees and their families, sexual violence and gender-based abuse.

The petitioners cited different instances involving victims of police high-handedness at the Imo Police Command, the violations of victims rights as specified by the Nigerian Constitution and other international organs.

The human rights group has therefore called on Governor Hope Uzodimma under whose watch the atrocities took place to step in and correct the anomalies. According to OGANIHU, after citing numerous legal documents relating to investigation and report of breaches or violations of people’s rights concluded that “the problem is not the absence of law but the failure of enforcement and accountability.,”