The Federal Government has received a report recommending N1.4 billion in compensation for the families of 33 suspected illegal miners who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State.
The investigative panel also called for the prosecution of officers found responsible for the deaths, alongside a major overhaul of the security agency’s leadership and operational procedures.
Politics Nigeria reports that the recommendations followed an investigation into the September 27 incident, which sparked public outrage and raised concerns about the treatment of detainees in security facilities.
The committee, chaired by former Deputy Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Jonathan Kure, submitted its report to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, in Abuja on Tuesday.
The panel was established on the directive of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths and identify any negligence or misconduct that contributed to the incident.
Presenting the report, Kure said the investigation found that the deaths were preventable.
He attributed the tragedy to overcrowding, poor detention conditions, inadequate supervision and the failure of officers to respond appropriately to distress signals from detainees.
The committee stated that the victims died from acute respiratory failure caused by prolonged confinement in an overcrowded and poorly ventilated cell. Heat stress and dehydration reportedly worsened the situation.
“The committee concluded that the incident was a preventable custodial tragedy caused by severe overcrowding, unlawful and unsuitable detention conditions, failure of duty of care, disregard of repeated distress warnings, inadequate supervision, and wider systemic deficiencies.”
The panel also rejected the suggestion that a disease outbreak was responsible for the deaths.
According to its findings, the available medical and forensic evidence pointed instead to conditions inside the detention facility.
“The evidence did not support claims that the death resulted from a disease outbreak. Available medical and forensic evidence instead indicated that the fatalities resulted from an environmental aphasia, an acute respiratory failure caused by prolonged confinement in a severely overcrowded and poorly ventilated detention cell, aggravated by heat stress and dehydration.”
The findings contradicted the initial explanation offered by the Niger State Command of the NSCDC, which had attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak while awaiting medical examinations to establish the cause.
The committee said it examined and cross-checked evidence from several independent sources to reconstruct the events leading to the deaths and determine the responsibilities of the officers involved.
Its investigation traced the incident to enforcement operations against suspected illegal mining activities in and around Minna, the Niger State capital.
The victims were among dozens of people arrested in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas during operations conducted on September 15 and 16.
The report raised concerns about the authorisation of the operation, stating that investigators found no evidence that it had received an operational order or approval from the NSCDC national headquarters.
It also identified failures among senior officers responsible for the operation, the conditions under which the suspects were detained, the supervision of personnel and the response to repeated distress calls.
According to the committee, responsibility for the incident extended beyond the officers directly involved in the arrests and detention.
It said the leadership of the Niger State Command could not be exonerated from the lapses identified during the investigation.
The committee consequently recommended the dismissal of the Niger State Commandant of the NSCDC and other officers whose actions or failures were found to have contributed directly to the deaths.
It also called for the prosecution of personnel where the evidence supports criminal charges.
