According to CAPTI, rather than address allegations raised in the report, Tiger Base “has responded not with accountability but with escalation and cover-up.”
The Coalition Against Tigerbase Police Impunity (CAPTI) has accused the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command, popularly known as Tiger Base, of responding to mounting allegations of torture, illegal detention and extrajudicial killings with what it described as retaliatory mass arrests and hurried remands aimed at concealing years of abuses.
In a public statement issued on December 27, 2025, CAPTI disclosed that at least 41 persons were remanded at the Owerri Correctional Centre between December 10 and December 23, 2025, less than two weeks after the launch of the #TigerBaseMustFall campaign and the release of a report documenting “at least 200 deaths in Tiger Base custody.”
According to CAPTI, rather than address allegations raised in the report, Tiger Base “has responded not with accountability but with escalation and cover-up.”
“This is retaliation masquerading as law enforcement,” said CAPTI Coordinator, Juwon Sanya-Olu.
“Within days of our report launch on December 15, Tiger Base dramatically tries to cover up its atrocities by decongesting its terror cells. The message is clear: demand accountability, and they will demonstrate exactly why accountability is needed.”
CAPTI stated that 19 people were remanded on December 10, followed by 17 people on December 16, four on December 18, and one person on December 23, bringing the total to 41 people in just 14 days.
The organisation said the sudden spike coincided “precisely with increased scrutiny of the facility following the campaign launch and international media coverage.”
“The timing is not coincidental,” Sanyolu said. “For years, Tiger Base held people for months or years without charging them. Suddenly, within days of our campaign launching, they are rushing dozens of people through magistrate courts. This is not the rule of law, this is a performance designed to create the appearance of legal process while continuing systematic abuse.”
CAPTI described as “perhaps most damning” the sudden arraignment of seven women who had allegedly been held at Tiger Base for periods ranging from one to two years without trial. The women were arraigned on December 16, 2025, one day after the campaign report was launched.
According to the statement, the women were charged under Sections 401, 402(2)(a)(b)(e), and 403 of the Criminal Code, relating to terrorism, based solely on their relationships with men accused of being members of IPOB or ESN. All cases were adjourned to January 15, 2026, at Magistrate Courts 1 and 10 in Owerri.
CAPTI said the cases illustrated “the cynical manipulation of the justice system” and a pattern of “holding family members hostage for alleged crimes of male relatives.”
Among those listed was Nkechinyere Ogu, who CAPTI said had been detained since October 11, 2023, after going to Tiger Base to negotiate bail for her sister-in-law and stepmother. Despite allegedly paying ₦950,000 for her own release, CAPTI said she remained in detention for over 26 months without trial.
Another case involved Chinenye Obi, who was reportedly arrested in October 2023 with her one-year-nine-month-old son over allegations against her husband. CAPTI alleged that she was beaten and tortured and that her child was taken to an unknown location, adding that she “has neither seen nor heard anything about him in over two years.”
The statement further detailed the case of Onyebuchi Anyanwu, who was arrested with her three children aged eight, five and three. CAPTI said the children were taken to unknown locations more than two years ago and that the mother had no information about their whereabouts.
CAPTI also highlighted the case of Chinaza Ifeanyi, arrested in November 2024 with her two-month-old infant. According to the organisation, her husband and two other men were killed by Tiger Base officers on February 26, 2025, while a pregnant woman and two children arrested at the same time “remain missing.”
“The separation of infants and young children from their mothers, with no information provided about their location or welfare for years, constitutes enforced disappearance of minors,” Sanyolu said. “These are children as young as two months old who have been taken to unknown locations.”
CAPTI said the fate of at least five children taken from their mothers remains unknown, with no information provided to families about their welfare or whether they are alive.
The group further alleged that Tiger Base officers engaged in a “systematic practice” of arresting wives, mothers and children when they could not find or wanted to pressure men accused of crimes.
According to CAPTI, officers told detainees that “each time human rights [monitors] and lawyers and journalists came around the cell, officers would hide them away and threaten them not to attract any attention.”
The organisation said this practice explained why a June 2025 visit by the National Preventive Mechanism noted that “few detainees are brought out to the office of the commander” during monitoring visits.
CAPTI described the recent court appearances as “theatre,” insisting that the women “should never have been arrested in the first place.”
“They were taken as hostages for men accused of crimes,” Sanyolu said. “Now, facing pressure from our campaign, Tiger Base has manufactured charges and rushed them through courts to create the appearance of legality. But you cannot legalize kidnapping retroactively.”
The organisation said Tiger Base continued to operate “with complete impunity” despite the publication of its report, submissions to United Nations special rapporteurs, and calls for the suspension of implicated officers.
CAPTI noted that ACP Oladimeji Adeyeyiwa, who commands Tiger Base, and officers named in multiple allegations “continues serving” despite the claims.
“Tiger Base’s response to our campaign proves our point,” Sanyolu said. “This is not a police unit, it is a criminal enterprise operating under state authority. It must be shut down.”