Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
The Niger State Government has confirmed that 67 artisanal miners were crammed into a single cell at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps facility in Minna before 37 of them were found dead in the early hours of Thursday, September 17, 2026. Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago disclosed the figure on Friday while addressing journalists in the state capital, describing the deaths as a tragedy of staggering proportions that demanded swift and transparent investigation. The miners had been arrested during NSCDC enforcement operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of the state on September 15 and 16. They were held for over 24 hours in a poorly ventilated cell before the deaths were discovered. Survivors have described scenes of panic and desperation as detainees struggled to breathe, banged on the cell door, and begged guards for help that never came.
The condition inside the cell, as recounted by survivors, paints a picture of systemic neglect. Dauda Shehu, one of the survivors, told the Associated Press from his hospital bed that 65 detainees were packed into a space with no ventilation. “We were jam-packed and there was no ventilation for us to breathe well,” he said. “All of a sudden, we realised that we could not breathe and we started scrambling to get fresh air.” Another survivor, who asked not to be named, said he survived only because he was near the cell entrance where he could breathe better. He described screaming to the guards that people were dying one after the other, but the guards did not believe them. A 40-second video circulating online, purporting to show the victims, featured dozens of young men clad only in shorts, most of them appearing to be teenagers, sprawled on the ground in the open. The identities of the deceased had not been officially released as of Friday evening.
The NSCDC initially attributed the deaths to a suspected outbreak of diphtheria, a claim that was met with immediate scepticism from survivors and their families. The agency later said the exact cause of death had not been established and that medical and laboratory examinations would determine what happened. Governor Bago said authorities were considering two primary possibilities: suffocation from overcrowding and exposure to hazardous substances associated with mining activities. He disclosed that preliminary forensic findings indicated the presence of foam mixed with bloodstains in the mouths of some victims and peeling skin, raising questions about possible exposure to methane, cyanide, or lead poisoning. Experts had been deployed to examine the possibility of radiological exposure at the mining site. “Even at times of war, if you kill 37 people, it is not a small number,” Bago said. “So there is need for us to expedite action in the autopsies that are being done, in the samples that are being taken at the scene and also by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps on the actions of their men who made the arrest.”
The federal government responded with unusual speed. The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, ordered the immediate suspension of the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, and directed a full investigation into the incident. “It is an unfortunate incident; however, a full investigation will be conducted while the commandant under whose watch this happened remains suspended,” Tunji-Ojo said. The NSCDC Commandant General, Ahmed Abubakar, directed Aniviye to step aside and report to the corps’ national headquarters, where he would appear before a panel of inquiry. The heads of Operations, Mining, Legal, Intelligence, and Investigation were also summoned to appear before the panel. A new commandant was deployed to Niger State to take immediate charge. President Bola Tinubu ordered a full and transparent investigation and directed that officials found culpable be prosecuted. The Niger State Government constituted its own committee of inquiry to determine the cause of death, while police in the state launched a parallel investigation and urged relatives of the victims to come forward with any information.
The deaths triggered violent protests across Minna on Friday, with mobs blocking major streets, attacking a transport depot, vandalising the fleet of the Niger State Transport Authority, attacking a Sterling Bank branch, destroying political party offices, and looting private businesses. Police opened fire to disperse the crowds; it was not immediately clear whether anti-riot pellets or live ammunition were used. Governor Bago imposed a 24-hour curfew across the state capital effective immediately after Friday prayers, saying vandals had taken over some streets and urgent measures were necessary to restore order. He appealed to residents to remain calm, exercise restraint, and keep their children at home while investigations continued. He condemned the destruction of public and private property, describing it as an affront to governance, and ordered the immediate suspension of all mining activities, both legal and illegal, across Niger State pending soil tests to determine whether hazardous substances were present.
The tragedy has drawn international condemnation. Amnesty International demanded an independent investigation into the deaths, calling for accountability not only for the deaths themselves but also for the conditions under which the detainees were held. “The authorities must establish the circumstances of the arrests and the conditions under which the detainees were held,” the organisation said. The Associated Press, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and The New York Times all reported the incident, focusing on the overcrowding and the conflicting accounts of the cause of death. The African Action Congress presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the NSCDC personnel involved. Families of the victims gathered at the Minna General Hospital, where the bodies were taken for examination, demanding answers and justice. Shafatu Sulaiman, who lost two sons in the incident, pleaded with the government to intervene.
The deaths in Minna are the latest and deadliest incident in a long pattern of custodial deaths in Nigeria, where overcrowding, poor sanitation, and lack of medical care are endemic problems in detention facilities. But this case is particularly egregious because it involves 67 people held in a single cell for over 24 hours, with multiple warnings that they were dying. The question of why they were held for so long, and why their cries for help were ignored, strikes at the heart of the accountability crisis in Nigeria’s security agencies. The NSCDC, a paramilitary agency primarily tasked with protecting critical national infrastructure and conducting anti-vandalism operations, has increasingly taken on a role in combating illegal mining. Critics have questioned whether the agency has the training, capacity, or oversight mechanisms to safely detain large numbers of suspects in operations that often take place in remote areas. The suspension of the state commandant is a first step, but it does not answer the broader question of how a situation like this was allowed to happen in the first place.
For the people of Niger State, the tragedy is compounded by the economic desperation that drives young men into illegal mining. Niger State is rich in gold, tantalite, copper, and lithium, minerals in high demand for electric vehicles and clean energy technologies. Thousands of artisanal miners are drawn to the state by the hope of striking gold. But the scramble for these reserves has also fuelled violence by criminal gangs known locally as bandits, who tax the miners and demand a cut of the extracted ore as a levy for access to the pits. The miners arrested in M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto were part of this informal, dangerous economy. They were not violent criminals. They were young men, many of them teenagers, trying to make a living. They died in a cell that was never meant to hold them, for a crime that amounts to participating in an unregulated sector that the state has failed to formalise.
The investigation now underway must answer several questions. Who ordered the miners to be held for over 24 hours in a cell designed for far fewer people? Why were their cries for help ignored? What exactly killed them, and what does that tell us about the safety of mining sites and the substances to which artisanal miners are exposed? The answers will determine whether this tragedy becomes a catalyst for reform or another entry in a long list of official failures. For now, Niger State is in mourning, its capital under curfew, and its people waiting for answers that may take weeks or months to emerge. The 37 miners who died in NSCDC custody deserve more than a suspended commandant and a committee of inquiry. They deserve accountability, and they deserve justice.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments