MINNA, Nigeria — A survivor of the mass d3aths of suspected illegal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State has alleged that officers sprayed an unidentified substance resembling perfume into an overcrowded cell shortly before detainees began collapsing, in an account that has intensified a scrutiny of the incident in which 37 people d!ed.
The survivor, speaking in Hausa during a visit by Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago and Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, jû being locked with others in a small, poorly ventilated room after arrests during NSCDC enforcement operations against illegal mining in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas.
The incident occurred on September 15 and 16. Governor Bago confirmed that 67 artisanal and suspected illegal miners had been detained in the facility before the d3aths.
“They locked us in a very small room. We were 17 in number, then they added more people, and we started complaining that the room was small,” the survivor said.
Officers ordered the group to stand as they prepared to secure the cell. “As they were about to lock the room, they sprayed something that looked like perfume, and the smell started disturbing everyone in the room, and that’s how people started falling down,” he alleged.
He said the room grew extremely hot. Detainees pleaded for water and for the door to be opened, but were told no one would open it that night. People continued collapsing as conditions worsened.
Similar accounts from other survivors, including Dauda Shehu, 38, who spoke to journalists from hospital, described severe overcrowding with little air, food or water. Some detainees became so dehydrated they drank their own urine.
Shehu said he and others banged on the door and called out as people d!ed, but officers did not respond. He attributed his survival in part to being near the cell door or a small opening that allowed slightly better access to air.
The NSCDC initially pointed to a suspected disease as a possible cause. An intelligence report cited by some outlets suggested overcrowding and poor ventilation contributed to the deaths.
Governor Bago said investigators were examining possible suffocation from overcrowding as well as exposure to hazardous substances linked to illegal mining activities. Autopsies, forensic examinations and sample collection by medical and biological experts were underway.
The Federal Government ordered a full investigation. The Niger State NSCDC commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, was suspended pending the probe.
President Bola Tinubu directed a transparent inquiry, stating that no citizen should lose their life in government custody through negligence, abuse or dereliction of duty. The minister of interior visited survivors as part of efforts to establish the circumstances.
The precise nature of any sprayed substance has not been independently confirmed, and authorities have cautioned against speculation pending laboratory and medical results. The deaths triggered protests in Minna. Small-scale and artisanal gold mining is widespread in parts of Nigeria, including Niger State, and has long been the focus of enforcement efforts against illegal operations.
Investigations into the cause of the 37 deaths and the conditions of detention continue.
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