Usman Muhammad cannot speak when he first reaches the doorway of the cell. It measured roughly 6 by 3 metres, and it is where he watched 33 of his fellow detainees die over the course of a single night in Minna, the capital of Nigeria’s Niger State. Four more died later in hospital, bringing the death toll to 37.
Muhammad, an artisanal miner in his twenties, was among more than 50 people packed into the cell after Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officers arrested a large group of miners near Minna on 15 and 16 September. Humidity inside reportedly exceeded 90%, with only a small, high window for ventilation. “I have never felt heat like that in my life.
When we touched each other’s bodies, it felt like fire burning,” he has said. Detainees banged on the door and begged for water and air; when a guard eventually looked in on a man who had fainted, he closed the door again, according to Muhammad. Survivors say people began drinking their own sweat and urine trying to stay alive before the door was finally opened and the dead were discovered.
The NSCDC initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak, but its own national headquarters has since said the actual cause has not been established and cautioned against speculation ahead of autopsy results. Afrikeye reported on the immediate aftermath as the toll first emerged and protests broke out in Minna, some turning into attacks on public buildings.
President Bola Tinubu ordered what he called a “full and transparent investigation” and, according to a 10-member independent panel named days later, made clear that suspending officers would not substitute for determining criminal responsibility — anyone whose negligence contributed to the deaths, he said, should be arrested and prosecuted. The panel, which includes a retired state security official, a medical expert and a human rights activist, has two weeks to establish who was responsible. Separately, 20 more NSCDC officers were suspended in addition to the Niger State commandant, Suberu Aniviye, who was removed from his post within a day of the deaths becoming public.
Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, who does not have direct authority over the federal NSCDC, has welcomed the investigation while urging residents not to take matters into their own hands. “We are calling on all the youth to please stay away from violence,” he said. “It is not going to bring back those who have died.” The state has closed the illegal mining site linked to the arrests and begun compiling a register of the deceased to contact their families.
For Muhammad, none of the investigations underway will undo what he watched happen inside that cell. He says he is speaking publicly in the hope that doing so helps establish what happened to the people who did not walk out with him.
