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Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago has disclosed that 67 artisanal and suspected illegal miners were detained in a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) cell before 37 of them died in custody.
The miners were arrested during NSCDC operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of the state on September 15 and 16, 2026.
Bago made the disclosure while briefing journalists in Minna on Friday, as investigations continued into the deaths.
The governor said the exact cause of the deaths had not been established, but noted that authorities were considering possible suffocation resulting from overcrowding and exposure to hazardous substances linked to mining activities.
He said medical, forensic and biological experts had been deployed to collect samples and conduct examinations that would assist the investigation.
Bago called for the prompt completion of autopsies and other tests to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
“It is very important to understand that responsible mining must be the way forward where miners will have to use protective gears and also a lot of advocacy by the ministry must be done and must be continuous where people don’t understand the danger and the consequences of mining,” he said.
The governor described the death of 37 people as significant and urged authorities to expedite the investigation.
“Even at times of war, if you kill 37 people, is not a small number. So there’s need for us to expedite action in the autopsies that are being done, in the samples that are being taken at the scene and also by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps on the actions of their men who made the arrest,” he said.
Bago added that experts had also been deployed to examine the possibility of radiological exposure at the mining site.
The NSCDC had initially attributed the deaths, discovered in the early hours of September 17, to a suspected disease outbreak but later said the actual cause had yet to be established pending medical and laboratory examinations.
The Corps said the bodies had been taken for medical examination as authorities worked to establish what happened.
The Federal Government has since suspended the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, and ordered a full investigation into the incident.
