RULAAC raises the alarm over disappearance of youths, others, demands immediate audit of Police facilities in Imo

Human rights group, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has called for the immediate audit of police cells in Imo State Police Headquarters, especially the Inspector-General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Tiger Base centre in Owerri.

Even as it raised alarm over disappearance of several people, especially young people in the custodies.

It expressed concern over the activities of the IRT in Imo State, noting that hundreds of youths have been reportedly killed, disappeared or held in secret, incommunicado detention by IRT, while some of the ‘lucky’ ones are extorted of huge sums of money before they are released and many others are held without their families knowing their whereabouts.

It further lamented that, in cases where their families find out and come for their release, they are denied access and lawyers are not allowed to see their clients.

RULAAC noted that many of the detainees are tortured and held in conditions that amount to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment.

“The whereabouts of some have either been executed and their dead bodies deposited in mortuaries or are secretly detained and tortured at the IRT Tiger Base office, Owerri, Imo State and possibly at other locations,” RULAAC lamented in a statement released on Saturday.

RULAAC recalled that a commercial motorcyclist who revealed Gloria Okorie’s detention at the IRT Tiger Base office in Owerri Imo State after he was himself released from the same facility after two weeks in detention was quoted as saying that many others were similarly being detained at the base and their relatives do not know their whereabouts.

Speaking on similar ordeals, RULAAC said: “Recent unconfirmed information making the rounds has it that one Anyanwu Amarachi Amos has been detained at the same ‘State CID Owerri (Tiger Zone)’ for the past two months and has been severely tortured. The message was said to have been passed through one of the recently released inmates at the IRT Tiger Base, Owerri. The messenger further revealed that Amarachi’s people are not aware of his whereabouts and he has been tortured to the extent that he cannot stand and walk on his feet. Please let’s save our innocent brother.

“The case of the secret detention of Gloria Okorie, the 21-year-old student from Imo State who was arrested along with the commercial motorcyclist conveying her and secretly detained at the Tiger Base office of the IRT in Owerri and her subsequent transfer to the Abuja headquarters of the IRT where her captors have continued to hold her hostage in flagrant disobedience to court Orders remains unresolved.

“Gloria, a student, had just written the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination (JAMB) before her arrest. IRT suddenly labelled her a spy girl for IPOB following public outcry over her continued incommunicado detention and calls for her release or arraignment in court.

“An Abuja High Court had ordered the police to arraign her in court or release her on conditional bail within a specified period which has long elapsed.

“Attempt by the IRT to get the court to vacate its order on them to release Gloria was turned down and the court reiterated its orders which the police are yet to comply with till date.”

RULAAC knocked Inspector General of Police, the Attorney-General of the Federation and President Buhari over their silence on the travesty which it described as a blatant disrespect to Court orders, saying it defines the rule of law profile of the Buhari regime.

RULAAC wondered why the IRT has continued to maintain a base in Imo State after the IGP in July 2020 ordered the disbandment of the satellite bases of the IRT and other tactical units of the NPF in response to popular outrage over their atrocities. It called on National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in keeping with its mandate and powers under the amended NHRC Act 2010 to immediate visit police cells in Imo State, particularly, the cells of Tiger Base of the IRT.

It, also insisted that there should be an audit of the Police cells in Imo State.