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The Rule of Law and Advocacy Center (RULAAC) has demanded justice over the death of a trader, Mr. Japhet Njoku, who allegedly died from torture while in the custody of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, popularly known as Tiger Base, at the Imo State Police Command headquarters in Owerri.
RULAAC director, Okechukwu Nwangunma, said Njoku was arrested in March 2025 following a petition by Mrs. Oluchi Obiagwu, a trader at Alaba Market, Owerri, allegedly supported by her policewoman sister and Insp. Barnabas of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit.
Njoku and four others were detained for over five weeks, during which they were allegedly tortured and extorted. Njoku eventually died in custody on May 5, 2025, before any investigation was concluded.
According to Nwangunma, a Coroner’s Inquest was ordered by a court on June 5, 2025, directing Insp. Barnabas, the unit commander, ACP Odeyiwa Oladimeji and other officers to testify, with clear instructions that no further investigation should take place until the inquest was completed.
Instead of complying, those implicated have allegedly refused to appear before the Coroner and have moved to level false charges of receiving stolen goods against Njoku’s associates, who are also key witnesses in the case.
RULAAC accused them of using harassment, detention, and threats of arraignment to intimidate the witnesses and derail justice.
The group further alleged that even after the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCID Owerri, advised that the murder case should take precedence, the same witnesses were detained and threatened that same day in defiance of the subsisting court order.
RULAAC called on the Commissioner of Police in Imo State to urgently intervene by calling Insp. Barnabas, Mrs. Obiagwu, her policewoman sister, and their collaborators to order; enforcing compliance with the Coroner’s directives; halting the diversionary “receiving” case until the inquest is concluded; protecting Njoku’s co-detainees and witnesses from intimidation; and ensuring that all those responsible for the custodial killing are brought to justice.
