By Sodeeq Atanda
OWERRI (FIJ, CONVERSEER) – Policemen from the Anti-Kidnapping Squad known as Tiger Base in Owerri, Imo State, tricked a mortuary attendant into an arrest last year, forcing his family to cough up N1 million to secure his freedom, his son has said.
Speaking on the July 2024 incident, the attendant’s son, who asked to simply be identified as Tochi, said his father returned to narrate how Tiger Base policemen finished off suspects early in the morning, around 4am, followed by the arrival of a Hilux van before 6am to move the bodies out.
“My father is alive and his friend, who followed him when he was tricked by the officers, is alive, too. If a public panel is set up on the calamities the Tiger Base represents, they would be more than happy to testify,” said Tochi.
Tochi’s dad had been working with a government-owned mortuary in Anambra State for 35 years. Sometime in 2024, the corpse of a woman of over 100 years was deposited in the mortuary by her family.
Thereafter, a male relative of the deceased who was among the family members who deposited her body returned to the mortuary that the family was ready to collect it.
The mortuary attendant issued him clearance to pay the necessary bills to the mortuary, to the knowledge of the head of the mortuary. To the attendant’s consternation, a few weeks after the body had been taken away, a son of the deceased showed up to claim the body.
He explained how the relative earlier had collected the corpse but the son rejected the explanation. He left after he was shown the details of the release.
“My dad thought the matter had ended there. But a few days later, it was a Sunday, he received a call from the deceased’s son that they needed to go somewhere together over the matter,” Tochi told FIJ.
“It felt like my dad connived with the relative for an unethical practice. Strangely, he told my dad not to tell anyone about his movements. My dad was skeptical but I advised him to go to clarify the issue.
“My dad asked his friend to join him to go and they met with the son at Mgbidi Junction in Anambra, a minibus with plainclothed police officers (three men and one woman) were waiting for them. The officers alighted and told my dad to follow them to Amaku Police Station. My dad never knew officers from Tiger Base, whom the son had paid N200,000, were already waiting to cross-transport them from Anambra to Imo State.
“The were driven to Tiger Base in Imo over a false accusation. When Commander Ola was told that my dad’s friend knew nothing about the issue, he ordered his release. Before the friend left Tiger Base, my dad gave him his wristwatch as a message to us but the police warned his friend not to disclose his whereabouts to anyone.
“A very good friend of my dad, the man came back and informed us. We notified my sister who lives in Imo. She immediately went to Tiger Base but she was told no such person existed in their facility. We sent a lawyer and was still another denial. I involved a senior police man was is a friend to my dad. I gave the officer fuel allowance and he went there with the lawyer and it paid off. They admitted he was in their cell.”
Tochi said the lawyer applied for his father’s bail, and Tiger Base requested N1.5 million cash before eventually cutting it down to N1 million.
“My dad spent seven nights there before we got him out with N1 million. They don’t accept transfers. We gathered the money and sent to my mother.
“She took it there in cash with our lawyer. You must come with cash. Even after you pay to bail your person, you must drop money for drinks for the officers, pay security men at the gate. Every table you get to is an extortion centre. And you have no choice. My dad told us the experience inside the Tiger Base cell is not what you wish even your enemy.”
Every day when his sister took meals to the death centre, she paid N5,000 in order to be allowed to hand over it to her father.
Tochi added that his dad told him of how people died and were killed there randomly. Detainees could die and their bodies would be left in the same cell with other living detainees for days.
“And when the officers were ready to attend to those bodies, they would ask other detainees to bring them out and cleanse the floor,” he said.
“The officers killed two or three suspects by 4 am daily. Those in the cell would only hear gunshots, announcing the end of those suspects. Next minute, silence would pervade everywhere. Before 6 am, a Hilux vehicle will drive in and carry their dead bodies out.
“They would cover their blood with sand and cover and their families would not know anything. I was surprised watching the video where the commander lying they don’t detain people. That place is an abattoir where human beings are wasted.”
Before FIJ linked up with Tochi, he had anonymously shared an account of his dad’s experience on Facebook through Only In Imo State page.
Henry Okoye, spokesperson for the Imo police command, did not respond to FIJ’s enquiry about whether the command was looking to constitute a panel on enquiry over the activities of the squad. Meanwhile, the spokesperson had previously denied that the squad killed suspects extra-judicially.
Source: FIJ
