A survivor of the Niger State detention tragedy has alleged that officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) had sprayed an unidentified substance into a cell crammed with alleged illegal miners, leading to the collapse of many suspects.
The unidentified survivor narrated the experience to the State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, on Friday, when the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, visited some survivors of the incident who are currently being held by the Department of State Services (DSS).
“As they locked the door, they sprayed something like a perfume; the smell of the substance immediately circulated, and just like that, some people started falling,” the survivor narrated in Hausa as the governor interpreted to Tunji-Ojo.
In a video shared by TVC News, the survivor explained that they were packed into a poorly ventilated cell, after which an additional 48 detainees were added to the cell.
“The room they kept us in is very small, and we were up to 14 in the small room. They added 48 more people, but we told them the space was too small for that many people. They didn’t listen to us. So, they told us to stand up. We all stood up, but there were too many in the room; there was heat and no ventilation,” he explained.
The survivor said that when some detainees began collapsing, they alerted the officers and pleaded for water, complaining that the heat inside the cell had become unbearable, but the officers ignored them.
“The heat was too much, and we were telling them to give us water, but they said that they would not open the door for anybody and they would not give anybody water, and it was at night. It was when I woke up in the morning that I noticed what had happened,” he said.
When asked if he could identify what was sprayed, he said: “It had a perfume scent, but it was painful in the throat and eyes, like pepper.”
The ICIR reported that the suspected miners, comprising minors and other young people, were confirmed dead hours after operatives of the command locked them up following their arrest at mining sites around the M.I. Wushishi/Lukoto axis of Minna between September 15 and 16, 2026.
While the command claimed the miners died from a suspected disease outbreak, local and international organisations have called for a thorough probe into the tragedy.
The Nigeria Police Force and the NSCDC headquarters in Abuja have launched investigations into the incident, and the Federal Government has suspended the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, under whose watch the operation was carried out.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.
Thank you for your statement this will help for further investigation these innocent Nigerians were killed by the unprofessional actors or officers Whom were unable to become an efficient officers😭