*Govt Orders Probe As Bodies Buried
*NSCDC State Commandant Suspended
LAW enforcement agents on Friday, September 18, fired tear gas as demonstrators, including miners and their relatives, wielding with sticks, machetes and traditional hunting rifles, gathered in Minna, the Niger State capital, witnesses reported to protest against the deaths of 37 detainees in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Thursday.
A 40-second video shared online showed the bodies of dozens of young men, most of who appeared to be teenagers.
Volunteers wearing gloves stood over the bodies, while veiled women tried to identify their relatives.
The victims were detained in NSCDC cells after it raided suspected illegal gold mines and locked up several miners in Minna, resulting in clashes on Thursday into Friday.
Police operatives were alleged to have fired tear gas at protesters calling for justice, with some of the trying to set fire to government buildings in the Tunga neighbourhood.
“We are not thieves; we are simply seeking a way to make a living by mining,” Yusuf Auwal, a miner who joined the protesters, told Reuters.
The NSCDC said the detainees had been held following raids on suspected illegal mines on September 15 to 16 in the Wushishi-Lukoto area of the state.
The paramilitary organisation had initially suggested disease outbreak may have been involved in their deaths, but later said the cause of death had not been established and would be determined by medical examinations.
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has ordered a full-scale investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths and directed the NSCDC Commandant General, Ahmed Abubakar Audi, to conduct a “full-scale, transparent and unhindered investigation” into the incident.
Following the directive, Audi ordered the Niger State Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, to step aside with immediate effect and report to the NSCDC national headquarters in Abuja to appear before the panel of inquiry constituted to investigate the incident.
The commandant is to be accompanied by the Heads of Operations, Mining, Legal, Intelligence and Investigation, who have also been directed to report to the panel.
Audi has also ordered a new commandant to proceed to the state and assume immediate command of the state command.
In a statement signed by the NSCDC’s Public Relations Officer, Babawale Afolabi, the corps said the investigation would be conducted thoroughly and that personnel found to have breached the law or established professional standards would face appropriate sanctions, assuring the minister that no stone would be left unturned in the investigation process.
The statement said any officer or personnel found to have acted contrary to the law, established procedures or professional standards would face “appropriate administrative, disciplinary and, where applicable, criminal sanctions in accordance with extant laws and regulations.”
It said the NSCDC remained committed to upholding the dignity, safety and fundamental rights of every person in its custody.
NSCDC noted that while it would continue to enforce its statutory mandate, including the fight against illegal mining and the protection of Nigeria’s critical national assets, such operations would be carried out in accordance with the law and established professional standards.
The victims were buried late on Thursday, in accordance with Islamic tradition, raising questions about if or how authorities would carry out further forensic examinations to determine the cause of death.
Mother of one of the detainees, Shafa’atu Suleiman, told Reuters outside the hospital on Thursday, that she had visited her son, Abdullahi, in detention and found him in a cramped NSCDC cell before later learning that he had died, saying: “This is injustice. We will not forgive them.”
She alleged that officials had refused to allow relatives to deliver food to the detainees and demanded N100, 000 for them to be freed.
NSCDC officials did not respond to requests for comment on her accusation.
Meanwhile, the Police have set up an investigation into the deaths, suspected to be due to overcrowding and poor ventilation inside the detention facility.
“We believe they suffocated because there was no ventilation,” father of one of those detained told the BBC.
Abdullahi Dalhatu said his son had survived because he was near a small window, noting: “His friend slumped and fainted, and many others also collapsed.”
He said his son narrated how detainees began collapsing in the heat of the overcrowded and poorly ventilated cell, adding that the detainees repeatedly knocked on the door for help, but nobody opened it.
This was corroborated by one of the survivors, Dauda Shehu, who told the Associated Press that 65 detainees were packed into a poorly ventilated cell.
According to him: “We were jam-packed and there was no ventilation for us to breathe well.
“All of a sudden, we realised that we could not breathe and we started scrambling to get fresh air.”
He said the detainees tried to get the guards’ attention by banging on the cell door, to no avail.
NSCDC officials had arrested the group of young men on Tuesday, September 15, over illegal mining near Borgu, noted for small-scale gold mining.
Its spokesperson, Babawale Afolabi, said over 50 people were arrested during the operation, but had not been charged, because profiling and documentation were still under way before the deaths.
The NSCDC headquarters in Abuja had initially said the detainees may have died from diphtheria outbreak and that the cause had not been established and would require medical and laboratory test.
But Dalhatu told the BBC that security officers had been pursuing suspected illegal miners in the community for several days before making arrests, noting that relatives went to the NSCDC office seeking their release, but were repeatedly told to return later.
“Unfortunately, the following day we got the news that our children had died,” he added.
The father of one of the victims said his son had appeared healthy when relatives took food to him the day before his death and called for an independent post-mortem examination.
Another relative, whose 17-year-old brother was among the dead, said the family had visited him during his detention and questioned how a disease could have killed so many detainees without apparently affecting their guards.
The victim’s bodies have since been taken to the general hospital in Minna for examination.
Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago described the deaths as “sad and tragic” during a press conference on Thursday.
Bago declared three days of mourning and postponed the start of campaigns for January’s elections.
Government officials and experts have blamed the scramble for gold reserves dug up in illegal mines in the state, much of which is trafficked through global supply chains, according to 2024 SwissAid report, has been blamed for fuelling criminal gang violence.
