37 Miners’ Deaths: Survivors Recount NSCDC Cell Ordeal

Survivors of the deaths of 37 suspected illegal gold miners in Niger State have recounted how overcrowding and poor ventilation allegedly left detainees struggling for air inside a cell of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Minna.

The detainees died on Thursday while in NSCDC custody in Minna, the state capital, triggering protests and unrest in parts of the city and prompting the Federal Government to suspend the Niger State NSCDC commandant and order a full investigation into the incident.

One of the survivors, Dauda Shehu, who spoke from a hospital in Minna, said the detainees were packed into the cell and had difficulty breathing because of inadequate ventilation.

“We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well,” Shehu said.

He said the situation suddenly deteriorated as detainees began struggling to find fresh air and repeatedly appealed to the officers for assistance.

“All of a sudden we realised that we could not breathe and we were all scampering for where to get fresh air. We even appealed to them several times, banged the cell door but they refused to answer us,” he said.

Shehu said some of the detainees raised the alarm that people were dying, but that their pleas did not receive the response they expected.

“Several times, we raised alarm that some people are already dying because of suffocation, nobody answered us,” he said.

Another survivor, who declined to disclose his identity, said his position close to the entrance of the cell helped him survive, while other detainees struggled for air.

“We were screaming for help,” he said, adding that detainees told the guards that “people are dying one after the other, they did not believe us”.

The survivors’ accounts have not established the medical cause of the deaths, which remains subject to ongoing investigations.