Prominent Nigerian human rights lawyer and former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has accused Niger State Governor, Umar Bago of acting unlawfully by publicly branding 37 people who died in state custody as “illegal miners” before any coroner’s inquiry was held.
Between September 15 and 16, 2026, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) carried out what it called a “burst operation” against illegal mining around the Wushishi and Lukoto areas near Minna, arresting dozens of suspects.
By September 17, 37 of those detained were found dead inside the NSCDC detention facility. Governor Bago later disclosed that 67 suspected illegal miners had been packed into the cell before the deaths occurred.
The NSCDC’s Niger State Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak, specifically diphtheria. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has since suspended Aniviye pending an investigation.
President Bola Tinubu has also ordered a full investigation, stating that no Nigerian should lose their life in government custody through negligence, abuse, inhumane treatment or dereliction of duty.
Bago has since said the cause of death has not been officially established and it was too early to draw conclusions, with investigators examining several possibilities including exposure to hazardous chemicals.
An AFP intelligence report suggested overcrowding and poor ventilation in the facility may be responsible.
A widely circulated video shows a survivor alleging that something was sprayed into the cell before people began collapsing.
Reacting on social media, Odinkalu, who once chaired the NHRC, drew a comparison to the 2013 Apo killings in Abuja, in which security forces killed more than a dozen young men and falsely labelled them terrorists.
He said it took years of work by the Commission to secure posthumous exoneration for the victims and compensation for their families.
He argued that the same pattern of premature, self-serving official narratives was repeating itself in Niger State.
According to Odinkalu, all the dead have already been buried in haste, with no inquiry conducted, even though the Coroner’s Act makes an inquiry mandatory when a death occurs in a detention facility and bars burial without a court order.
He further alleged that families of those arrested were told by NSCDC operatives to pay 500,000 naira each to secure their relatives’ release, and that NSCDC personnel in Minna fired on protesters who approached the command’s headquarters in the state capital.
Odinkalu described Governor Bago’s public characterization of the victims as “illegal miners,” made without a formal investigation, as callous and legally indefensible. “What this Niger State Governor has done is unlawful. In all likelihood it is also criminal,” he wrote, arguing that a death toll of that scale in custody made investigation and inquiry unavoidable, not optional.
The NSCDC has since said the remains were deposited at the General Hospital in Minna for medical examination, and the Commandant General has ordered a high-powered investigative team to examine the circumstances of the arrests, detention conditions, medical attention provided and the deaths themselves.
Bago, addressing journalists in Minna, said the scale of the deaths meant autopsies and evidence collection needed to be expedited, remarking that losing 37 people would be a large number “even at times of war.”
No coroner’s inquest has been publicly confirmed as having taken place before burial. The allegations of bail demands and of NSCDC personnel firing on protesters in Minna, raised by Odinkalu, have not yet been independently confirmed by NSCDC or state authorities.
