Officers at the notorious Tiger Base police unit in Imo state hold detainees incommunicado while also threatening to kill their families should they raise alarm about the situation of loved ones, a report by the social movement against police brutality, Coalition Against Tiger Base Impunity (CAPTI) has revealed.

In the report, CAPTI detailed how the dreaded anti-kidnapping police unit is responsible for at least 200 extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of detainees between 2021 and 2025, with the Nigeria Police Force reportedly promoting officers involved in these allegations while ignoring the complaints of the victims. 

According to the report, isolation of detainees from the outside world upon their arrest is the standard mode of operation at the station, noting that the victims’ phones are firstly seized from them once in custody while also refusing to notify their families about the situation, leaving relatives to desperately search for loved ones.

Most family members of the detainees often find out that they have been dead for weeks and months upon visiting the police base and mortuaries. One of the alleged victims was Magnus Ejiogu, who was held incommunicado between September 23 to October 17, 2025 when his family discovered he had died in custody,” the report noted. 

“The place is like hell, and the policemen operate like kidnappers. Once you’re arrested, they won’t allow you to reach out to your family members or friends,” one Ms Mary said, describing how the Tiger Base operates.

To keep their atrocities under wraps, officers often deployed intimidation tactics to stop families of people in detention, including their wives from speaking out, with the report stating that the family of one Alfred Friday was threatened with fabricated charges after a human rights lawsuit was filed against the police unit in the case of Japhet Njoko, who died in custody in May this year. 

The report added that multiple people, who prefer to remain anonymous for their safety, told CAPTI about several other ordeals they suffered at the hands of police officers attached to the unit, with one saying “If they know I talked to you, they will come for me again. This time I will not come out alive.”

In a response to an earlier Peoples Gazette request for comment, the Imo State Police Command, through its spokesperson Henry Okoye, said victims should come forward with their complaints and evidence against its officers, adding that a police unit has been inaugurated to look into the allegations.