Survivors recount suffocation as 37 Nigerian miners die in custody

Survivors of a disaster that killed 37 suspected illegal gold miners in the custody of Nigeria’s civil defence corps have recounted struggling to breathe inside an overcrowded cell in Minna, Yahoo News reports.

“We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well… we even appealed to them several times, banged the cell door but they refused to answer us,” survivor Dauda Shehu said, adding that guards ignored repeated warnings that people were dying of suffocation.

Another survivor told state governor Mohammed Umaru Bago that guards had sprayed “a form of perfume” into the packed cell before detainees began collapsing, thirsty and struggling to breathe, their throats and eyes burning.

President Bola Tinubu has since suspended a civil defence commander and ordered a “full and transparent investigation,” insisting the miners’ suspected criminality “does not remove their right to life, dignity and humane treatment.” An intelligence report reviewed by AFP suggested overcrowding and poor ventilation caused the deaths, contradicting the civil defence’s initial claim of a disease outbreak.

With police already firing shots to disperse angry protesters in Minna and a dusk-to-dawn curfew now imposed, the tragedy risks deepening unrest in a state already gripped by banditry and illegal mining violence.