How 37 Miners Died in Our Custody – NSCDC Commandant, Nurse

Following the recent death of 37 Miners in NSCDC custody, the commandant, Siaka Zubeiru Anirive and some medical staff have narrated how they died.

The suspended commandant while answering questions at the Justice Mohammed Mohammed-led Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Niger State government said the operation that led to the arrest and subsequent death of the miners was based on a petition from residents of the M. I. Wushishi Estate in Minna on the encroachment of illegal miners on the estate.

He said, “There was an operation carried out within the mining site along M.I. Wushishi Housing Estate through a written and oral petition forwarded to my office by some communities around the estate,”

He disclosed that the residents alleged that the miners were disturbing them and they had no option than to forward their petition to his office for necessary action.

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Consequently he said on the 15th of September, he personally visited the M.I Wushishi Mining site to see what was happening and put a call to the command’s head of operations, ACC Joha Achagwa and dispatched men of the Mining Marshals to carry out the operation at the mining site which led to the arrest of the miners from the site.

“Unfortunately, we lost some suspects in our custody,” he said.

Zubeiru said he received a call informing him of some casualty in the command, that some suspects had died in custody and he immediately rushed to the office and went straight to the cell and discovered some bodies on the floor of the cell.

“I then put a call to the governor on what I met on ground. Then the governor directed me to take them to the mortuary. I then called on the medical department to take them to the hospital,” he stated.

Responding to a question from the lead counsel of the commission who is also the director of public prosecution in the of the office of the Attorney General in Niger State, Usman Nuraini Baba, the suspended commandant told the commission that there was a move to arraign them in court on 17th September before their death.

In her testimony, a nurse in the medical unit of the NSCDC the state, Maryam Etang, said on the 16th and 17th of September, as part of her routine duty she visited the cell to see to the well-beings of the suspects.

She said, “ I met three of our staff and checked them, they were all okay. In the evening of the 16th September, I went back to. check them, one of the suspects was seriously coughing but on the 17th I was surprised that some of them died and while they were bringing the bodies out from the cell, one of the named Emeka Emmanuel who was not among the arrested miner was among the corpses. I was shocked to see the body of Emeka.”

The nurse was not categorical on what led to the death of the suspects but disclosed that the only sign seen earlier was that a suspect was coughing a night before their death.