Group demands probe over death of 37 miners in Niger NSCDC custody

By Sopuruchukwu Nnaji

The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has asked the Federal Government to investigate the death of 37 suspected illegal miners in the custody of the Niger State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

The demand was contained in a press statement issued in Lagos on Friday and signed by the group’s Executive Director, Philip Jakpor.

The development follows an incident on Thursday, September 17, which Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State described as “sad and tragic” during a press conference.

The NSCDC had said its operatives carried out a “burst operation” on September 15 and 16 in M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto Village, a community known for small-scale gold mining, to curb illegal mining.

It was gathered that about 65 suspects were arrested during the operation and crammed into the agency’s facility, with 37 of them found dead in the early hours of Thursday, a situation the corps blamed on “suspected outbreak of disease.”

The RDI, however, faulted the explanation, arguing that the corps lacks the expertise to determine disease outbreaks, a responsibility that lies with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jakpor said, “The deaths of the artisan miners under the watch of the NSCDC are totally unacceptable.

“It is not even the responsibility of the agency to build detention centers where victims are crammed to show it is delivering on its mandate. That is supposed to be the function of the Nigeria Police.

“That is why we insist that this incident cannot be swept under the carpet. We are talking about 37 young men who were hale and hearty when they were apprehended.”

He noted that the situation is more disturbing because the arrested miners are not the major players behind illegal mining across the country who rake in profits and are never apprehended.

“Arresting artisan miners trying to eke out a living cannot be a big burst when the big players walk freely on the streets.

“We need to know what the young men were mining; who owns the particular sites where they were apprehended or if the deaths were the silencing of pawns to shield some powerful individuals”, he said.

The group further demanded an immediate autopsy to determine the cause of death, insisting that the findings must be made public for Nigerians to know what truly happened.