37 Dead In Minna Custody: A Mining Crackdown, A Locked Cell & Questions Without Answers
By MAPHOSA AGUSE
The Arrest That Ended in Tragedy
THE people arrested in Minna over alleged illegal mining were taken into custody as part of an enforcement operation.
For some families, however, the arrests soon became a nightmare.
Among those detained was 19-year-old Adamu Isah, who says he survived a deadly episode inside an NSCDC facility after detainees began collapsing and dying.
By the time the incident was over, 37 people had died.
The circumstances remain under investigation.
Yet survivors’ accounts have raised troubling questions about the conditions inside the detention facility, the number of people held there, the response of security personnel and the events immediately preceding the deaths.
The Cell & the Crowding
Isah said about 20 detainees were initially held in the facility around the PDP Secretariat in Minna.
After some detainees were released on bail, about 17 remained, according to his account.
The population subsequently changed as more suspects were brought in.
Women were eventually separated from the men.
The survivors nevertheless described the facility as cramped and poorly ventilated.
Another survivor, 16-year-old Khadija Mohammed, gave an even larger estimate, saying as many as 65 men were packed into one small room.
That figure remains one of the details investigators will have to verify.
But regardless of the final number, the survivors consistently described heat, restricted ventilation and a desperate search for air and water.
The Night of the Deaths
According to Isah, the crisis began after a substance was sprayed around the entrance of the men’s cell.
He said it had a perfume-like smell and left a damp sensation.
The detainees soon began struggling for fresh air.
One man, he recalled, began foaming at the mouth and collapsed.
Then others started dying.
Isah described some detainees as becoming highly agitated. Others allegedly banged their heads against the wall or bit fellow inmates.
He was bitten twice.
His account is supported in part by the testimony of women detained nearby, who said they could hear the men screaming and asking for water.
Yet there is an important qualification: there is no publicly established forensic evidence in the material available to confirm that the sprayed substance caused the deaths.
That question now belongs to the investigators and medical experts examining the evidence.
“The Heat Is Killing Us”
From the women’s cell, 15-year-old Zuwayra Aliyu said the men could be heard complaining about the heat.
They shouted for water.
Then the noise changed.
According to Aliyu, the shouting gave way to repeated banging.
The women did not immediately know what was happening.
The following morning, she said, an NSCDC officer told them that the men had died.
When the door was opened, she recalled seeing bodies piled on top of each other.
She also remembered hearing the men question officers about what was being sprayed.
The women were reportedly told it was mosquito repellent.
But that account does not establish what the substance actually was, whether it was used in a harmful concentration or whether it had any connection to the deaths.
Only proper forensic analysis can answer those questions.
Survivors Looked for Air
Mohammed’s account adds another dimension.
She said some detainees tried to find air through a small opening in a toilet.
Children were reportedly lifted towards the opening so they could breathe.
The men continued banging on the door and calling for water, she said.
Eventually, when the door was opened, the detainees were found dead.
The reported conditions raise questions about the adequacy of ventilation and emergency response.
They also raise a basic question about detention management: what systems were in place to monitor the health and safety of people confined in the facility?
The Women Also Fell Ill
The survivors’ accounts were not limited to the men’s cell.
Mohammed described a separate incident after a chemical was used to clean the women’s toilet.
She said the door was left open to allow the smell to disperse, but some women fainted after inhaling the substance.
Aliyu similarly described the women’s cell as hot, poorly ventilated and heavily affected by mosquitoes.
No woman, according to the accounts, died, although some reportedly lost consciousness.
These testimonies will need to be examined against medical records, detention logs, environmental evidence and forensic findings.
A Teenage Breadwinner
The human cost of the incident is perhaps clearest in the story of Fahad, a 14-year-old detainee.
His mother, Fatima Sa’adu, said he helped provide food and medicine for the family by selling water.
She said he had not wanted to go to the mining site because he was unwell.
A friend later persuaded him to go.
After his arrest, his mother tried to take him food.
She said she was prevented from giving it to him.
Later, she saw him being brought out of the facility.
He hugged her and cried for her.
Minutes later, he died.
The circumstances surrounding his death are now part of the wider investigation.
The Missing Body
For another family, the tragedy has continued beyond the deaths.
Isiaku Usman said his nephew, Kabiru Usman, appeared on the list of people reported dead.
Yet the family has been unable to locate his remains.
Usman said he visited the mortuary twice and was shown unidentified bodies, but could not find Kabiru.
The failure to conclusively identify every deceased person adds another layer to the crisis.
Establishing the identities of the victims is expressly included in the mandate of the federal investigation.
Why the Miners Were Arrested
The enforcement operation did not occur in isolation.
Authorities had been responding to concerns about alleged illegal mining around M.I. Wushishi/Lukoto.
Residents complained that mining activities were damaging farmland and expanding into residential areas.
Some residents said excavations had reached their backyards and were moving towards their compounds.
The NSCDC has linked the enforcement operation to such concerns.
However, the miners interviewed after the deaths described another side of the story.
For them, mining is largely about survival.
Poverty Beneath the Mining Dispute
One artisanal miner said miners could spend several days in the bush without finding enough gold to make meaningful income.
That reality underscores the economic dimension of the conflict.
People may be violating mining regulations, but some are also operating within a difficult environment of unemployment and limited alternative livelihoods.
This does not remove the regulatory questions surrounding illegal mining.
It does, however, show why arrests alone may not eliminate the activity.
Communities want protection from damaged homes, farmland destruction and environmental harm.
Miners want income.
Government agencies want to enforce mining laws.
The challenge lies in addressing all three realities without allowing enforcement operations to compromise the safety and rights of people in custody.
The First Official Account
When the deaths were first reported, the NSCDC said some detainees had been found dead in the early hours of 17th September.
The corps said a suspected disease outbreak was being considered, but stressed that the cause had not been conclusively established.
The bodies were taken to the General Hospital in Minna for medical examination.
The subsequent emergence of survivor and family accounts intensified public concern.
Protests and unrest followed.
The Niger State Government imposed a curfew, which was later lifted after mourning activities and a special prayer session.
The state also established a committee of inquiry and ordered autopsies and forensic examinations.
A Federal Probe Takes Over
The Federal Government subsequently moved to establish an independent investigation.
President Bola Tinubu directed a comprehensive probe.
On 22nd September, Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo inaugurated a 10-member committee with a two-week mandate.
The committee is expected to determine who died, examine how the detainees were arrested and held, establish the circumstances and cause of death, identify responsibility or negligence and recommend appropriate action and compensation where necessary.
Its secretary, Isa Chiroma, said investigators would visit relevant locations, speak to survivors and witnesses, collect documents and examine other evidence.
A medical team has also begun determining the cause, mechanism and manner of death.
The Nigerian Bar Association’s Minna branch has separately constituted a 13-member committee.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission and the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre have called for transparent investigations and forensic autopsies.
Twenty Officers Suspended
The authorities have already taken administrative steps.
Twenty NSCDC officers connected to various parts of the operation were suspended.
The affected personnel included officers involved in arrests, intelligence, investigation, legal work and guarding the detention facility.
The Niger State commandant, Suberu Aniviye, was among those suspended.
Abdulhamid Kabara has since been deployed as the new commandant.
Those measures represent an initial administrative response, but they do not determine individual or institutional responsibility for the deaths.
That will depend on the evidence gathered by investigators.
The Questions That Matter
The survivors’ stories have placed several questions at the centre of the investigation.
What was sprayed into the cell?
Who authorised it and why?
Was the substance tested?
How many people were inside the cell?
Were minors held there?
What were the ventilation conditions?
When did the first detainee become seriously ill?
How quickly did officers respond?
Was emergency medical assistance available?
Were detainees provided with sufficient water and air?
What do the autopsy and toxicology results show?
And perhaps the most consequential question is whether the deaths could have been prevented.
The answers cannot safely be supplied by testimony alone.
They will require forensic evidence, detention records, medical reports, witness interviews and a reconstruction of the events.
A Test of Accountability
The Minna tragedy now sits at the intersection of several national challenges.
Nigeria is trying to curb illegal mining and its effects on communities, farmland and the environment.
At the same time, artisanal mining remains an important source of income for people with few alternatives.
And once suspects enter state custody, another obligation begins: they must be kept in conditions that protect their lives and basic rights.
That responsibility does not depend on whether the allegations against them are eventually proven.
For the families of the 37 deceased, the immediate concern is accountability and the truth about what happened.
For survivors, the consequences continue through their memories and, in some cases, lingering health complaints.
For families still searching for remains, even mourning remains incomplete.
And for miners returning to the pits, the economic circumstances that brought them there have not disappeared.
The independent investigation therefore carries significance beyond one detention facility.
Its findings could determine responsibility for the deaths and influence how Nigeria approaches detention standards, forensic accountability and mining-law enforcement.
Until the evidence is fully examined and the findings are made public, however, the central question remains unresolved:
What happened behind the locked doors of the Minna cell on the night 37 mining suspects died?
