Niger State Governor, Mohammed Bago, says 67 artisanal and suspected illegal miners were detained in a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps facility before 37 of them died in custody.
Bago disclosed this on Friday while briefing journalists in Minna on the ongoing investigation into the deaths.
According to the governor, the miners were arrested during NSCDC operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of the state on September 15 and 16.
The victims were reportedly found dead inside the detention facility in the early hours of September 17.
The NSCDC initially suggested that a disease outbreak may have caused the deaths but later clarified that the cause had not been established and that medical and laboratory investigations were underway.
Bago said authorities were considering several possibilities, including suffocation caused by overcrowding and exposure to toxic substances linked to mining activities.
He said, “The first one is that the office of the Niger State Civil Defence arrested 67 artisans and illegal miners and put them in their cell.”
The governor added, “So probably they died of suffocation. Probably the second one is exposure to certain poisons or poisoning substances on the field.”
He said medical, forensic and biological experts had been deployed to collect samples from the scene and conduct examinations that could help establish the cause of death.
Bago called for the autopsies and other investigations to be conducted quickly, stressing that the death of 37 people could not be treated as a minor incident.
He said, “Even at times of war, if you kill 37 people, it is not a small number.”
The governor said the investigation should also examine the circumstances surrounding the miners’ arrest, detention and the conduct of NSCDC personnel involved in the operation.
He added that the state needed to promote safer mining practices, including the use of protective equipment and sustained public education on the dangers associated with mining.
Bago said, “It is very important to understand that responsible mining must be the way forward, where miners will have to use protective gear.”
He also disclosed that experts had been assigned to investigate the possibility of radiological exposure at the mining location.
Meanwhile, the NSCDC has maintained that the actual cause of the deaths is yet to be determined, saying the bodies were taken for medical examination.
The Federal Government has suspended the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, and ordered a full investigation into the incident.
Authorities are expected to rely on autopsy findings, laboratory results and other forensic evidence to determine what led to the deaths.
