When they were discharged and acquitted on Friday, October 23, 2026, Thaddeus Ojokoh and Damian Ibeh – held hands and shed tears of joy, having come back, literally, from the dead. Two men yoked together in adversity, they echoed the “Free at last, free at last, great God almighty, we are free at last” chant even without knowing it. And you need to hear their story to know why. On April 15, 2023, Ojokoh, a professional tailor, from Umuokirika, Ahiazu-Mbaise LGA, Imo State, was arrested at Afor-Oru market by policemen from the notorious police detention facility called “Tiger Base” in Owerri. He had just left his shop to buy some tailoring materials when armed security men swooped on him and whisked him away on the allegation that he was a member of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). Then, on April 21, 2023, gunmen struck at Okpala Junction in Ngor-Okpala LGA, killing seven people – five policemen and a couple identified as Mr. and Mrs. Chinaka Nwagu.
On April 30, the Imo State Police Command issued a statement claiming that “nine suspected IPOB/ESN terrorists” had been arrested over the heinous crime. The nine suspects included Ojokoh, the man they arrested six days earlier. The police claimed in their statement titled: “Operation restore peace: Imo police arrest nine suspected IPOB/ESN terrorists; including Mbaise/Ngor-Okpala IPOB/ESN sector commander, recovers arms and ammunition,” that they “arrested one Matthew Chukwuma 48yrs ‘m’ of Mpam Ahiazu Mbaise LGA, Imo State, in his hideout at Umuahia, Abia State,” who “confessed to be the Sector Commander of a dreadful IPOB/ESN syndicate in Mbaise and assisted the curious operatives in arresting three (3) of his syndicate namely; Ojoko Ikechukwu 53yrs ‘m’ of Umugwa, Chilaka Charles 44yrs ‘m’ of Umuezuo, and Anthony Iwu 50yrs ‘m’ of Umugwa all in Umuokirika, Ahiazu Mbaise LGA of Imo State in their criminal hideout while others escaped.” The claim was incredulous, preposterous and beggared belief. How could a man arrested on April 15 and held incommunicado kill policemen on April 21? That can only be possible if the Tiger Base police officers led the murderous operation, co-opting Ojokoh, their detainee.
On May 11, 2023, I expressed my doubts on the veracity of the police’s absurd tales in an open letter to the Inspector General of Police titled, “Travails of Citizen Ojokoh: Open letter to IGP Usman Alkali Baba.” First, police claimed that the so-called IPOB/ESN Mbaise sector commander, Matthew Chukwuma, was arrested on April 24 and his confession led to the arrest of Ojokoh and others. But Ojokoh was arrested on April 15, 2023, ten days before Chukwuma’s alleged confession, assuming he confessed the day he was arrested. That is sheer stupidity. Not only that, Ojokoh was arrested at the market square in broad day light by policemen who beat him to a pulp, and thereafter yanked his shirt off his bloodied back and used it to blindfold him. When he was abducted by the police, the only thing he had on him was his measuring tape which hung on his neck. Apparently rattled by the disclosures and further intervention of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), a human rights advocacy organisation, the Imo State police command pivoted. The then Imo State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Henry Okoye, shamelessly claimed that Ojokoh confessed to him that he had been holding a series of meetings with others on how to attack police personnel attached to Ngor-Okpala and Mbaise on April 21.
“As the coordinator, he does not have to be present for the activity to be carried out,” he lied against an innocent man. Okoye further claimed that other IPOB members, including those who were arrested with him, identified Ojokoh as their coordinator. Another unconscionable lie!
These lies formed the basis for the nine-count charge that included conspiracy, illegal possession of firearms, armed robbery and murder, which the court dismissed as garbage. In his well-considered judgement last Friday, Justice E. N. Eke of the High Court of Imo State, discharged and acquitted Ojokoh and his co-accused for absolute lack of evidence, not even the confessional statement the police claimed Ojokoh made voluntarily. But did the police have a “confessional statement” from Ojokoh? Yes, they did. But they could not tender it because they knew how it was obtained and the position of the law on the matter. Under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, specific procedural safeguards regulate how law enforcement agencies, including the Police, EFCC, ICPC and DSS, must record and take a suspect’s confessional statement.
Section 17(1) & (2) of the Act which deals with the right to legal representation or a trusted third party makes it compulsory that when a suspect chooses to make a statement, it should be taken in the presence of a legal practitioner, an officer from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, an official from a Civil Society Organization (CSO), a Justice of the Peace (JP), or any other person of the suspect’s choice (such as a relative). Section 15(4) further states that where a suspect volunteers to make a confessional statement, the police officer must ensure the statement is in writing and may be recorded electronically on a compact disc or other audio-visual media. Over the years, there was intense debate because the ACJA Act used the word “shall” for writing but “may” for electronic/video recordings, a conflict which, however, has been resolved in some Supreme Court rulings (such as FRN v. Akaeze and FRN v. Nnajiofor) that the procedural safeguards were mandatory obligations. Consequently, failure to record a confession electronically in the presence of a lawyer or chosen relative violates the statutory process and any such confessional statement is inadmissible as evidence in a court of law.
That was explicitly stated in Justice Eke’s ruling. Of course, the police knew their folly, which was why they never bothered tendering Ojoko’s confessional statement. Because of the intensity of the torture after his arrest, Ojokoh passed out. By the time he regained consciousness several hours later, two policemen sandwiched him, one with a “confessional statement,” authored by evil men, the content of which he had no idea, while the other was behind him, brandishing a cutlass and threatening to sever his head from his neck if he refused to sign. He had no choice but to thumbprint. Police accused and arraigned innocent citizens for such grievous crimes that bordered on life and death without any shred of evidence. Justice Eke was perspicacious enough to see through the charade. Besides, it was an act of courage. Many politically correct judges, knowing the truth, would still have played Pontius Pilate. It is instructive that of the nine accused persons who were paraded for murdering the policemen at Ngor-Okpala, only two made it to the courts. Others remain unaccounted for, possibly executed extra-judicially.
Thaddeus Ojokoh is alive today because people intervened. He could also have been killed the same way his co-accused were extra-judicially murdered. As soon as the case went to court, one of the most respected lawyers in Owerri, a learned silk, Emeka Nwagwu, stepped in pro-bono to seek for his bail, which was graciously granted by Justice Ibeawuchi. Thereafter, another enterprising Owerri-based lawyer, Nnamdi Iwu, handled the case until the no-guilt judgement was delivered last Friday, also pro-bono. Now, while I am happy that my cousin, Thaddeus Ojokoh, and his co-accused, have been vindicated, I am sad that there will be no accountability. It is fiendish for policemen to wilfully frame innocent, poor folks for crimes they never committed. What is going on at the Tiger Base, Owerri is atrocious. The base is a torture chamber where Imo youths are dehumanised and reduced to sub-human creatures. Most of the alleged suspects can hardly walk due to severe beatings. With sunken eyes, some can hardly talk. They can only grunt like animals because they lack the strength. It is worse than a concentration camp. No one comes out of there the same.
Okechukwu Nwanguma, human rights defender, civil society leader, police reform advocate and executive director of RULAAC has shouted himself hoarse on the need to disband the Tiger Base which is worse than the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The Inspector General of Police needs to do the needful because, surely, there are better ways of policing a State and that, by any stretch of the imagination cannot be the Tiger Base way.
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