This article by Okechukwu Nwanguma discusses Japheth Njoku, a 32-year-old man, who died in Police custody, after weeks of detention over an ordinarily bailable allegation of stealing. A Coroner’s Court has now discovered that the circumstances and size of his detention contributed to the deterioration of his well being and his eventual demise, whereas additionally figuring out practices of extortion, intimidation and remedy, inconsistent with the rights of detainees. Urgent questions on what occurs to residents behind the partitions of Police detention services, the obligation of the State as soon as it deprives a individual of liberty, and the sensible obstacles households face in searching for fact and accountability, are raised in this text
Background
Japheth Njoku entered Police custody alive. He didn’t depart alive.
He was 32 years outdated when he died, after weeks in detention at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the Imo State Police Command, popularly often known as Tiger Base, Owerri.
For his household, the tragedy didn’t finish together with his demise. They needed to start one other battle: to determine how he died, safe an post-mortem, defend potential witnesses, and overcome repeated obstacles positioned in the path of a judicial inquiry.
More than a 12 months later, the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Owerri, sitting as Coroner, has delivered findings that deserve nationwide consideration. The significance of the determination goes far past Japheth Njoku. It raises basic questions on what occurs when residents disappear behind the partitions of Police detention services, and the huge difficulties households face once they attempt to maintain the State accountable.
Coroner’s Findings
According to studies of the Coroner’s findings, Njoku was detained for roughly six weeks, over an allegation of stealing – an ordinarily bailable offence.
The Coroner discovered that cash was demanded in connection together with his launch and rejected makes an attempt to justify his continued detention, by subsequently portraying him as a terrorist.
The court docket reportedly discovered circumstances at Tiger Base inconsistent with the rights of detainees to dignity, liberty, authorized illustration and bail, and recognized practices involving torture, intimidation and extortion.
Although the medical proof reportedly recognized meningitis, bronchial pneumonia and hypertensive coronary heart illness amongst the causes of demise, the Coroner made a particularly essential discovering: the circumstances beneath which Njoku was detained and the size of his detention, contributed to the deterioration of his well being and eventual demise. That distinction issues.
An individual doesn’t must die straight from a Police bullet or a blow from an officer, earlier than the State can bear duty for a demise in custody. Once the State deprives a individual of liberty, it assumes an enhanced obligation to guard that individual’s life, well being and bodily integrity.
Police custody mustn’t ever change into a place, the place sickness is ignored till it turns into deadly.
Perhaps, one of the most troubling features of the Njoku case, is what occurred after his demise.
On June 11, 2025, the Coroner ordered an post-mortem, and offered for an impartial pathologist nominated by the household to watch the examination. The court docket additionally summoned
Police officers and different materials witnesses.
What ought to have been a easy course of turned a extended battle
The Njoku household’s Lawyer, Dr Christian C. Nwadigo, repeatedly raised issues about Police conduct surrounding the implementation of the Coroner’s orders. RULAAC and the People’s Rights Organisation, subsequently petitioned the Police Service Commission alleging repeated failures to make Njoku’s physique out there for scheduled autopsies, together with appointments on October 28 and October 30, 2025, however repeated extensions granted by the court docket.
The issues weren’t confined to civil society allegations
Amnesty International subsequently reported that Tiger Base officers, failed on three events to look for the court-ordered examination, even when court-appointed pathologists have been current.
This side of the case, deserves an investigation of its personal.
Lack of Accountability and Intimidation of Potential Witnesses
When a individual dies in State custody, preservation of the physique, medical examination, documentation and impartial investigation are usually not favours to the deceased’s household. They are indispensable safeguards towards impunity.
If officers implicated in a custodial demise can delay or impede the very procedures designed to determine how that individual died, the integrity of the total accountability system is threatened.
There was one other disturbing improvement. During the inquest, issues emerged that individuals who had been detained alongside Njoku and who may probably present proof about what occurred inside Tiger Base, have been themselves going through contemporary Police consideration.
RULAAC raised issues about studies of renewed investigations, detention and threats of prosecution towards potential witnesses. The household and its Lawyer, additionally complained about alleged intimidation.
These allegations shouldn’t merely disappear, now that the Coroner has concluded the inquest.
The Inspector-General of Police and Police Service Commission ought to set up whether or not any Police officer tried to frustrate the post-mortem, intimidate witnesses, intervene with proof or in any other case impede the administration of justice.
Accountability for a demise in custody consists of accountability for makes an attempt to hide, distort or impede the fact about that demise.
Coroner’s Recommendations
The Coroner reportedly advisable the prosecution of Inspector Barnabas and ACP Oladimeji Odeyeyiwa (the Tiger Base Commander), for alleged extortion and corruption. The court docket additionally advisable compensation for Njoku’s household, cost of burial bills, improved coaching, CCTV protection of detention services, and the switch of officers serving at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit.
These suggestions should not be a part of the lengthy checklist of official findings, that disappear into Government information.
Other Steps to be Taken
The Attorney-General of Imo State ought to promptly evaluate the full document of proceedings, and decide all offences disclosed by the proof. That evaluate shouldn’t essentially cease at extortion and corruption.
Nigeria has an Anti-Torture Act. If proof earlier than the inquest discloses torture or different felony conduct, the applicable investigative and prosecutorial authorities have a obligation to observe the proof wherever it leads.
The Police Service Commission should equally decide whether or not disciplinary offences have been dedicated, together with in relation to the extended detention, calls for for cash, remedy of the detainee, and alleged makes an attempt to impede the post-mortem and intimidate witnesses.
There is, nonetheless, a hazard in lowering this case to 2 Police officers.
For years, victims, households, Lawyers, journalists and human rights organisations have raised allegations regarding Tiger Base: extended detention, torture, extortion, denial of entry to Lawyers and relations, disappearances and deaths in custody.
These allegations require an institutional response
The Coroner’s reported suggestion that officers serving in the unit be transferred, ought to itself trigger the Police authorities to ask a a lot greater query: what is occurring inside Tiger Base?
An impartial audit ought to look at custody registers, deaths in custody, complaints of disappearance, detention intervals, bail practices, entry to Lawyers and relations, medical remedy of detainees, allegations of torture and extortion, CCTV data and former complaints towards personnel of the unit.
This shouldn’t be one other inside investigation, in which the establishment investigates itself behind closed doorways. Credible oversight requires independence.
The significance of the Njoku findings turns into even better, when seen towards different allegations regarding the identical facility.
In Onuocha Johnbosco v Commissioner of Police & 3 Ors (Suit No. HOW/161M/2025), one other case arising from alleged detention at Tiger Base stays earlier than the court docket, and is scheduled for listening to on October 13, 2026.
No conclusions ought to be drawn about a case that is still pending
But, its existence reinforces the want to look at allegations regarding Tiger Base institutionally, somewhat than ready for victims and their households to struggle separate, exhausting battles one after one other.
When complaints repeatedly emerge from the identical detention facility, accountability can’t consist merely of investigating every incident in isolation.
Police reform is in the end about what occurs inside the cell
Nigeria has debated Police reform, for many years.
We have enacted the Police Act 2020. We have an Anti-Torture Act. We have constitutional ensures of dignity and private liberty. We have judicial selections, affirming the rights of suspects. We have Police oversight establishments.
Yet, the true measure of Police reform isn’t the quantity of legal guidelines enacted or committees inaugurated. It is what occurs, when a poor or powerless Nigerian is arrested.
– Is the arrest recorded?
– Is the household knowledgeable?
– Can the detainee contact a Lawyer?
– Is bail genuinely free?
– Is the suspect introduced earlier than a court docket, inside the constitutionally prescribed interval?
– Can an officer demand cash and maintain somebody locked up, when relations can’t pay?
– Can a detainee get hold of medical remedy?
– And, if that detainee dies, can the household uncover the fact with out combating the Police for months?
These are the actual exams of Police reform.
The Coroner’s findings supply a chance, to display that accountability mechanisms can nonetheless work. But, a judgement or suggestion, is just the starting.
The officers towards whom prosecution has been advisable, should obtain due course of. Allegations should be proved, in accordance with regulation. That is exactly the safety the rule of regulation calls for, for everybody.
The identical rule of regulation, nonetheless, calls for justice for the lifeless.
Japheth Njoku’s household deserves the fact, accountability and sufficient reparation. The public deserves assurance that, Police detention services are usually not areas past constitutional scrutiny.
And, Police officers who carry out their duties professionally even have an curiosity in making certain that torture, extortion and illegal detention are usually not tolerated inside their establishment.
Japheth entered police custody alive
The State had a obligation to guard him, whereas exercising full management over his liberty.
He died in that custody
His household then spent months, struggling to determine what occurred to him.
The Coroner has now spoken.
The actual check begins with what the authorities do subsequent.
Okechukwu Nwanguma, Executive Director of the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC)
The SAN Title Needs Reform: Time for an Honorary Track
Introduction
Congratulations to the 68 newly sworn in Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN). It stays a distinct badge of honour, however in the identical vein, it’s in many respects starting to lose its which means, and in want of reform.
Every 12 months, the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) releases a checklist of new Senior Advocates of Nigeria. There is celebration, after which, silence.
For a rank that’s alleged to signify the pinnacle of authorized excellence in Nigeria, that silence is revealing. Outside the courts, few Nigerians can let you know why a explicit Lawyer was made a SAN. Few younger Lawyers can level to the circumstances or contributions, that earned that Silk.
We have inherited a nice custom from the English Bar — the King’s Counsel. But, whereas the UK has reformed its Silk system to replicate trendy authorized observe, Nigeria has allowed ours to stagnate, inflate, and exclude. It is time to reform.
The Original Purpose has Been Lost
When the SAN rank was launched in 1975, the thought was easy: to determine and honour advocates of distinctive capability and excellence in advocacy.
Today, the software of the Legal Practitioners Act and the LPPC Guidelines have change into closely litigation-centric and, more and more, a numbers recreation. Applicants should present dozens of contested circumstances from the High Court to the Supreme Court, with a few reported judgements.
On paper, that’s rigorous. In observe, it rewards quantity over significance, submitting over jurisprudence.
This raises an uncomfortable however needed query: For the 57 legal professionals elevated in July 2025 and the 68 elevated this 12 months, what circumstances of authorized significance did they argue that developed Nigerian regulation? What precept did they set up at the Supreme Court? What space of regulation did they form?
The public doesn’t know, as a result of the LPPC doesn’t inform us. Unlike the UK, the place KC appointments are accompanied by citations of notable circumstances and judicial suggestions, our system publishes solely names. We are advised they certified, however we aren’t proven how.
When excellence isn’t seen and verifiable, seniority, longevity and entry, inevitably start to interchange brilliance as the metric.
The Excluded Majority: Where Is the Solicitor?
The second and extra severe flaw, is who the system excludes.
Modern authorized observe in Nigeria, is not simply advocacy in open court docket. It is company finance, power transactions, expertise regulation, arbitration, authorized assist, public curiosity litigation, regulation reform, and establishment constructing.
Some of the most consequential Lawyers in this nation, have by no means constructed their careers round contested litigation. They are:
• The Solicitors who structured the transactions that energy our economic system and created jobs for a whole lot of different Lawyers;
• The Academics whose works are cited by the Supreme Court;
• The Public Interest Lawyers who’ve spent many years both defending the indigent and increasing the frontiers of human rights and writing/highlighting topical points of curiosity.
• The Law Officers and Attorney-Generals whose recommendation formed coverage and laws.
For these Lawyers, there isn’t a credible path to our career’s highest honour. Our message to them is evident: irrespective of how a lot you contribute to regulation and society, you’ll by no means be a SAN. Surely that can’t be proper.
The Shrinking Academic Silk
Perhaps, the clearest signal of how the courtroom Bar has closed ranks, is what has occurred to the educational route. There was a interval when the LPPC would confer the educational SAN on as many as 8 to 10 Professors/Academics in a 12 months — Scholars whose books and articles have been truly cited in court docket. After sustained complaints from main courtroom Silks that Academics have been “largely unknown” and that their works have been “neither well-known nor major sources of reference”, the LPPC quietly restricted the Academic class to only one slot per 12 months.
Last Legal Year is illustrative: out of 68 new SANs sworn in by Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, 67 have been advocates and just one — Professor Nnamdi Onyeka Obiaraeri — made it on the educational monitor. The message is unmistakable: The Courtroom Silk complained that Academic Silks have been competing with them for status, and the system responded by nearly shutting the educational door.
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Lessons From the UK
The United Kingdom confronted this identical disaster, and acted. In 2007, it launched Honorary King’s Counsel — a distinct honour for individuals who have made an distinctive contribution to the regulation exterior of courtroom advocacy. Academics, Solicitors, regulation reformers, and professional bono champions, are actually recognised with out diluting the normal for litigation Silks.
The result’s that, the KC system is each extra prestigious and extra inclusive. It displays what the authorized career truly is.
Nigeria shouldn’t be afraid to do the identical.
Three-Point Reform Agenda
To restore credibility and equity to the rank the following is proposed:
1. Create Two Tracks: Litigation SAN and Honorary SAN
Retain SAN for confirmed, distinctive courtroom advocacy. Introduce Honorary SAN for Solicitors, Academics, Reformers and Public Service Lawyers. The Honorary rank ought to carry the identical honour and post-nominal recognition.
2. Publish Citations and Make Excellence Accountable
For each new conferment, the LPPC ought to publish a temporary quotation — three main circumstances argued, or three main contributions made. Let the Bar and the public see why this individual is worthy. Let younger Lawyers study from it. Prestige should be accountable, whether it is to be revered.
3. Cap Numbers and Elevate Standards
When we appoint 125 new SANs in simply over a 12 months, we devalue the Silk. Scarcity creates worth. Nigeria should make the rank rarer, extra rigorous, and extra significant. Quality should conquer.
Conclusion
The regulation is a career of advocates and solicitors, litigators and advisers, courtroom orators and quiet draftsmen. Our highest honour ought to replicate that complete career, not only one half of it.
As it stands, the SAN rank tells a majority of our greatest Lawyers, that they’ll by no means be seen at the high. It tells younger Lawyers that, just one sort of observe issues.
That is dangerous for morale, dangerous for mentorship, and in the end, dangerous for justice.
Reforming the Silk isn’t about pulling anybody down. It is about lifting the normal up, and lifting the career with it. This in the end, might be for the better good of us all.
