SIXTY-SEVEN people went into the custody of the Nigerian state alive. Thirty-seven people came out dead. And somehow, we are already being expected to move on because they were suspected illegal miners. Fine.
News Point Nigeria reports that the 67 artisanal and suspected illegal miners were arrested during Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) operations around the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Niger State on September 15 and 16, 2026, before 37 of them subsequently died in NSCDC custody. The number of detainees and deaths has been confirmed by Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago, while investigations are ongoing to establish exactly what happened inside the detention facility.
Let us even agree that illegal mining is a serious crime and that Nigeria must protect its mineral resources, stop environmental destruction, recover lost revenue and deal with whoever is illegally exploiting the country’s wealth. But since when did arrest become a death sentence and since when did the Nigerian state become so incapable of keeping people alive after taking them into custody?
The NSCDC raided suspected illegal mining operations around the Wushishi-Lukoto area of Niger State between September 15 and 16. Sixty-seven people were reportedly detained and thirty-seven died, with many of them reportedly teenagers.
In an interview with BBC Hausa that I watched, Niger State Governor Umaru Bago was specific that many of the miners were teenagers between the ages of 13 and 20. He also added that it was not poverty or lack of education that dragged them into that illegal mining pit, it was just pure adventure. They should’ve gone to the farm if they wanted to.
The NSCDC initially suggested that a disease outbreak might have been involved, before later saying that the cause of death had not yet been established. The Corps has since said medical and laboratory examinations would be required to determine what happened, while Governor Bago said possible suffocation from overcrowding and exposure to hazardous substances were among the issues being examined.
Some of the survivors, meanwhile, described overcrowding and terrible ventilation, with another saying detainees were struggling to breathe and calling for help. A surviving detainee also alleged that a substance was sprayed inside the overcrowded cell before some of the detainees began collapsing. These remain accounts and allegations that the investigation must establish or disprove.
The Federal Government has now suspended the officers involved and ordered an independent investigation into the arrests, detention, deaths and possible negligence or misconduct. The Interior Ministry has constituted a 10-member independent committee with a two-week mandate to investigate the reported deaths, while the government has said the probe should provide a transparent account of what happened.
But I have questions. Very uncomfortable questions.
First of all, why are Nigerian children digging for gold instead of sitting in classrooms?
Who ordered the operation? Who authorised the arrests? Who decided that 67 human beings could be detained in that facility? Who inspected the cell before these people were locked inside? Who was on duty when people started gasping for air? Who heard them banging on the doors? Who was responsible for counting them? Who noticed that people were dying? And the most disturbing question of all: How many people had already died before somebody decided something was wrong?
Because thirty-seven people do not simply disappear from a room. Thirty-seven deaths are not a clerical error. Thirty-seven is not a rounding figure. Thirty-seven families received the kind of phone call that permanently divides life into before and after.
But there is another part of this story that Nigerians must not allow to disappear beneath the outrage. The mine.
Who owns it? Not who owns the land in theory, but who owns the mining operation? Who finances it? Who employs the miners? Who buys the gold? Who processes it? Who transports it? Who profits from it?
Who has been collecting money from people working there? And, most importantly, how long has this operation been running under the noses of the authorities? The NSCDC has also said it does not know the actual owner. So let the investigation establish the truth, not social media, not rumours, not political loyalty. Let there be documents provided, mining licences, land records, beneficial ownership, financial trails — just everything.
Because if the mine was illegal, somebody was operating it. If somebody was operating it, somebody was benefiting from it. And if it had been operating for any length of time, then another question becomes unavoidable: Where were the regulators?
Where were the mining inspectors?
Where were the local authorities?
Where were the security agencies?
Where was everybody?
Nigeria has become remarkably efficient at discovering illegal businesses only after something terrible happens.
We discover illegal refineries after explosions. We discover unsafe buildings after they collapse. We discover criminal networks after massacres. We discover corruption after money has disappeared. And now we are discovering the questions around an illegal mining operation after 37 people have died in state custody.
The government says there will be an investigation. Good!
But Nigerians have heard that sentence before. Remember the Tudun Biri tragedy? The hunters that were killed in Uromi and many more unresolved investigations. What we need this time is not another committee whose report becomes a PDF somewhere in the government archives. We need names, timelines and evidence. We need to know who arrested these people, who ordered their detention, who supervised the facility, who knew about the overcrowding, who failed to intervene, and who ultimately bears responsibility for what happened.
And we need to know who owns that mine.
Because while we are arguing about whether these men were illegal miners, we risk forgetting something fundamental: A person suspected of committing a crime does not lose his right to life.
The state can arrest, prosecute and convict you if a court finds you guilty. But what the state does not acquire is the right to kill you because you were accused of illegal mining. And if the government is serious about ending illegal mining, then it should start by asking a question that goes beyond the poor man holding the shovel: Who is standing behind him?
Because the man digging for gold may be the easiest person to arrest, but the person financing the operation may be much harder to find. And that is exactly why we need to keep asking.
Who owns the mine? Who profited from it? Who protected it? Who knew?
How many children are outside school because poverty has made education a luxury? If they are children, where is the child-protection system? If the government knew illegal mining was attracting children, what intervention existed before 37 of them ended up dead in detention?
And finally: Who will answer for the 37?
Voice, just cleared its throat!
- Kabara is a writer and public commentator. Her syndicated column, Voice, appears in News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday. She can be reached at hafceekay01@gmail.com.