By The Federal Government has moved to investigate the death of 37 detainees in Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps custody in Niger State, setting up a 10-member independent panel even as police worked to secure the scene amid unrest triggered by the incident.
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced the constitution of the committee on Saturday, acting on a directive from President Bola Tinubu for a comprehensive probe into the deaths, which occurred on Thursday, September 17, while the detainees were in the custody of the NSCDC’s Niger State Command. The cause of the deaths remains unestablished, with multiple investigations now underway to determine what happened.
According to a statement signed by the minister, the committee has been tasked with identifying the deceased and examining the full chain of events, their arrests, their detention and the cause and circumstances surrounding their deaths. It will also determine responsibility, complicity, negligence or misconduct on the part of any individual or agency, and recommend appropriate sanctions, compensation where applicable and measures to prevent a similar tragedy.
Tunji-Ojo warned that interference with the process would not be tolerated. “Any attempt to destroy or conceal evidence, intimidate witnesses or obstruct the investigation will be treated as a serious offence,” he said.
The panel is chaired by retired Deputy Director-General of the Department of State Services, Jonathan Kure, with Professor Isa Hayatu Chiroma, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Director-General of the Nigerian Law School, serving as secretary. Other members include retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police Hosea Hassan Karma, Professor Olayinka Buhari, a histopathology expert and former Chief Medical Director of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, a representative of the Minna Emirate Council, a representative of the Niger State Government, Alhaji Liman Sulaiman of the Miners Association of Nigeria, human rights lawyer Deji Adeyanju, Mrs Zainab Suleiman Okino of Blueprint Newspaper, and public affairs analyst Dr George Agbakahi.
The committee has been given powers to co-opt experts, access relevant facilities and documents, visit locations tied to the case and request memoranda from the public. It has two weeks to submit its findings to the minister, who extended condolences to the families of the deceased and appealed for calm while the process runs its course.
Scene secured as police move to calm tensions
Separately, the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, disclosed on Saturday that officers had secured the scene of the incident to preserve evidence ahead of the various investigations. He spoke after inspecting the site alongside Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago and other security officials.
“We have to keep the place safe, we have to keep it clean, we have to ensure that nothing is removed and nothing is added in the scene of the incident,” Disu said.
The IGP said security agencies had also moved to contain unrest that broke out in the aftermath of the deaths, with residents staging demonstrations that at one point threatened to spill into vigilante action. He said the situation had since calmed following the governor’s imposition of a curfew.
“We noticed before past two, three hours ago, there have been a kind of demonstration, riot. People want to take laws into their hands, but luckily, decisively, the governor of the state have declared a curfew and the town is calm,” he said.
Disu assured residents that the investigation would be conducted openly. “We assure them that nothing will be kept out from their knowledge, we will not hide anything, and we will be transparent,” he said, adding that police would coordinate with the state’s own committee of inquiry, the NSCDC and other security agencies to establish the full circumstances of the deaths.
The deaths followed the arrest of suspected illegal miners at a mining site in the state. Bago had earlier said it was too early to determine an exact cause, pointing to overcrowding and possible poisoning as factors under review, and noting that preliminary findings showed some of the bodies bore burns, peeling skin, foaming at the mouth and blood stains.
In response to the fallout, the state government has suspended mining activities across Niger State pending the outcome of investigations, while the Federal Ministry of Mines has assembled a team of scientists and laboratory experts to examine the incident. The unrest that followed the deaths, which included attacks on public and private property in parts of the state, prompted the governor to impose the ongoing curfew.
