FG panel confirms 37 miners died of suffocation, recommends N1.4bn compensation

A federal investigative committee has officially concluded that 37 suspected artisanal miners died from suffocation inside an overcrowded holding cell run by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State.

Presenting its comprehensive findings to Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo in Abuja on Tuesday, the 10-member independent panel chaired by Jonathan Kure confirmed that the fatalities were entirely avoidable. The committee recommended the immediate dismissal and criminal prosecution of all senior officers involved, alongside a total of N1.4 billion in financial compensation for the families of the deceased victims and surviving detainees.

The report provides closure to weeks of conflicting official accounts surrounding the tragedy, which initially saw the paramilitary agency suggest an unconfirmed disease outbreak before survivors alleged that an irritating substance was sprayed into their cell.

Inhuman conditions and avoidable deaths

Detailing the harrowing circumstances of the arrests made during enforcement operations in Minna, committee chairman Jonathan Kure stated that the detainees—including 14 minors—were crammed into quarters that violated all constitutional and humanitarian standards.

“The deaths were completely avoidable,” Kure said while presenting the report. “The victims, including 14 minors, were held in inhuman conditions that directly caused their death through asphyxiation.”

The committee’s findings confirmed survivor testimonies gathered by Pluboard weeks earlier, which revealed that upwards of 65 men had been packed into a single, unventilated cell where frantic pleas for air were ignored by guards.

Furthermore, the panel exposed a subsequent cover-up attempt, noting that certain officers tried to tamper with the crime scene. Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo acted swiftly upon receiving the report.

“I have directed the NSCDC Commandant-General to immediately suspend all officers who participated in cleaning up the detention centre in an alleged attempt to destroy evidence,” Tunji-Ojo declared. “We will ensure that the recommendations of this panel are fully implemented, and every single person found culpable faces the full weight of the law.”

The federal government established the investigative committee on September 19 following a directive from President Bola Tinubu for a full, transparent inquiry into the Minna detentions.

The N1.4 billion compensation package is intended to provide direct financial reparation to the families of the 33 deceased victims whose names were catalogued by human rights monitors, as well as the 44 documented survivors who sustained severe respiratory trauma during the ordeal.

Civil society organizations and legal bodies have welcomed the panel’s recommendations, emphasizing that the case must serve as a watershed moment to end unlawful detentions and systemic human rights abuses within Nigeria’s internal security architecture.