The African Action Congress (AAC) has demanded the immediate removal of the Director-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other officials connected to the detention of 37 suspected illegal miners who died in the agency’s custody in Minna, Niger State.
The AAC Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter made the demand while calling for a fully independent investigation into the deaths, including forensic autopsies and the public release of the findings.
The demand was contained in a statement signed by the Chairman of the AAC in the FCT, Agena Robert Ande, on Friday.
The 37 detainees were among scores of people arrested by NSCDC operatives during enforcement operations against suspected illegal mining activities in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Niger State on September 15 and 16.
The detainees were subsequently found dead inside an NSCDC detention facility in Minna in the early hours of September 17.
The incident has generated widespread outrage and calls for accountability, particularly over the circumstances surrounding the deaths and the conditions in which the detainees were held.
The Niger State NSCDC Command initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak. The agency later stated that the actual cause of death had not yet been established and would be determined through medical and laboratory examinations.
Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago confirmed the deaths and said authorities were considering several possible explanations, including suffocation arising from overcrowding and possible exposure to hazardous substances associated with mining activities.
The Federal Government subsequently suspended the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, pending investigation into the incident.
President Bola Tinubu also ordered a full and transparent investigation into the deaths, while the NSCDC Commandant-General, Ahmed Abubakar, constituted a high-powered panel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
However, the AAC said the measures announced so far were insufficient, insisting that the deaths of 37 people in the custody of a government security agency required an independent process capable of establishing responsibility.
Ande questioned the initial explanation of a possible disease outbreak and demanded answers concerning how 37 detainees could die while under the supervision and protection of the NSCDC.
“You cannot have 37 human beings arrested as suspects, kept under your custody, and they all die without any credible explanation as to why they died,” Ande said.
He described the reported disease-outbreak explanation as “questionable, suspicious and totally unacceptable”, arguing that the circumstances surrounding the deaths demanded an independent examination rather than an investigation controlled by the same institution responsible for the detention facility.
The AAC chairman went further to allege that the incident could have involved deliberate wrongdoing, describing the deaths as “murder in custody”.
The allegation remains a position of the political party and has not been established as a finding of any official investigation.
The party consequently called for the immediate removal of the NSCDC Director-General and all officials allegedly responsible for the supervision of the detention facility where the 37 detainees died.
“We in the African Action Congress, FCT Chapter, are therefore calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately dismiss the entire NSCDC team involved, and the DG himself must go,” the statement said.
The party also demanded that the remains of the deceased be preserved and subjected to what it described as a “very vigorous and independent autopsy”.
It further called for the complete publication of the findings of all medical and forensic examinations conducted to establish the cause and circumstances of the deaths.
Beyond determining the cause of death, the AAC demanded an independent judicial panel of inquiry involving human rights organisations and representatives of the victims’ families.
According to the party, the panel should investigate the entire chain of events, including the arrests of the suspects, their transfer and detention, the conditions inside the facility, access to medical care, the circumstances preceding their deaths and the actions of NSCDC personnel.
The AAC maintained that the issue should not end with an internal administrative investigation, arguing that public confidence would require an independent process and transparent disclosure of the findings.
The party said the deaths must not be allowed to disappear into another government investigation without clear answers and accountability.
“We cannot continue to have criminal terrorists killing Nigerians on one hand, and on the other hand, the Government itself obviously killing Nigerians in custody. Enough of this bloodshed!” Ande said.
He called for accountability and insisted that the deaths of the 37 detainees must not be swept under the carpet.
“Nigerian lives matter,” he added.