A damning report by the Coalition Against Tiger Base Impunity (CAPTI), a coalition of civil society organisations advocating police accountability and human rights protection, has alleged widespread and systematic abuses at the police formation known as ‘Tiger Base’ in Imo State.

The report, titled “Tiger Base Files: Systematic Torture, Extrajudicial Killings, and the Collapse of Police Accountability in Imo State,” was released on Monday by Sanyaolu Juwon, coordinator of CAPTI. 

It accuses officers attached to the facility of subjecting detainees to torture, unlawful detention, extortion, and forced labour.

According to the report, detainees were allegedly compelled to carry out manual labour on officers’ private properties as a condition for their release. 

In the report, testimonies gathered from former detainees revealed a disturbing pattern of abuse at the ‘Tiger Base’ facility, where suspects were reportedly deployed to construction sites within the facility and to private residences owned by police officers.

“Former detainees report being compelled to perform construction and maintenance work at the facility and on officers’ private properties, constituting forced labour in violation of international law,” the report stated.

CAPTI further alleged that no fewer than 200 cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have been linked to the anti-kidnapping unit operating at ‘Tiger Base’. 

Many detainees, the group claimed, were held without formal charges, denied access to legal representation, and subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse aimed at extracting confessions.

“Tiger Base has become synonymous with death, torture, and disappearance in Imo State,” Mr Juwon said.

“What we documented is not policing; it is systematic, state-sanctioned murder operating with complete impunity. Officers torture detainees to death, defy court orders, ignore the Inspector-General of Police, and even kill people after the National Human Rights Commission intervenes. Then they get promoted and awarded,” he added.

The report described the Tiger Base facility, headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Oladimeji Adeyeyiwa, as operating outside the bounds of the law, with minimal oversight and widespread impunity.”

It also raised concerns over alleged financial extortion, claiming that detainees and their relatives were routinely asked to pay large sums of money for bail, despite constitutional provisions granting suspects the right to bail in many cases.

Efforts to obtain a reaction from the Imo State police command were unsuccessful. 

Henry Okoye, the police public relations officer (PPRO) of the Imo police command, was unavailable for comment as of Monday, while a text message sent to him had not been replied to at the time of filing this report.