This account is from a faith-based counsellor of a Church residing in Enugu, but in the axis of Imo border communities. Listen to his experi...
This account is from a faith-based counsellor of a Church residing in Enugu, but in the axis of Imo border communities. Listen to his experiences with families of survivors and victims from Tiger Base.
"In my work, families come to us when they have nowhere else to go. We pray with them. We listen. We try to calm them. In the last few years, a particular fear started appearing in these conversations. Families would say their relative was taken to a police unit in Imo. They would not always say the name. But when they did, it was Tiger Base. What disturbed me most was not anger but confusion.
People did not understand:
Why was their loved one was still detained?
Why couldn't lawyers see them?
Why was no court date fixed?
Why did the police deny holding them?
Some families said they were later told their relative had died. Others said they were released suddenly, thin, silent, unwilling to speak about what they experienced.
One young man told me, "If I talk, they will take me again."
As a counsellor, I have seen trauma before. This was different. This was fear mixed with resignation. I do not accuse. I only report what families bring to us. And what they bring is the same story, again and again, from different places, people who do not know one another. That is why many of us believe something is wrong. Not because of rumours, but because the same wounds keep appearing on different families."
As captured by a priest in the church.
Edited by
Onyekachi Mboma
States Media Team
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