How 37 miners died inside NSCDC Niger custody — Survivors recount ordeal

Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic on Friday as they struggled to breathe inside the cell.

Nigeria’s government had suspended a civil defence commander and ordered a “full investigation” over Thursday’s deaths.

“We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well,” Dauda Shehu told journalists at a city hospital.

“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.

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

Another survivor, who asked not to be named, said he made it out alive because he was near the cell entrance where he could breathe better.

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

An intelligence report seen by AFP suggested the 37 died as a result of overcrowding and poor ventilation in the detention facility, though the civil defence initially blamed the deaths on disease.

Niger state Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, announced a nighttime curfew in the city to curtail the unrest.

The interior ministry said it had suspended Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, the state commander of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), while the incident is investigated.

“A full investigation will be conducted while the commandant under whose watch this happened remains suspended,” Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said in a statement.