By Martha Agas
The Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has urged the Federal Government to investigate the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners in Niger.
The group made the call in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja by its Executive Director, Mr Philip Jakpor, following the reported deaths at an NSCDC facility in Niger.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NSCDC Niger Command, in a statement issued by its Commandant, Suberu Aniviye, said it conducted a “burst operation” on Sept. 15 and 16.
Aniviye said the operation was conducted at M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto Village and led to the arrest of suspected illegal miners.
He said that in the early hours of Thursday, scores of the detained suspects were found dead following a suspected outbreak of disease.
RDI called for a detailed investigation into the deaths, saying some sources alleged that about 65 suspects were arrested and crammed into the paramilitary agency’s facility.
“The deaths of the artisan miners under the watch of the NSCDC are totally unacceptable.
“ It is not even the responsibility of the agency to build detention centers where victims are crammed to show it is delivering on its mandate.
“That is supposed to be the function of the Nigeria Police. That is why we insist that this incident cannot be swept under the carpet.
“We are talking about 37 young men who were hale and hearty when they were apprehended, “he said.
Jakpor said the incident was particularly disturbing because the artisanal miners were not the major actors behind illegal mining operations across the federation, which generate huge profits while the masterminds remain at large.
“Arresting artisan miners trying to eke out a living cannot be a big burst when the big players walk freely on the streets.
“We need to know what the young men were mining; who owns the particular sites where they were apprehended or if the deaths were the silencing of pawns to shield some powerful individuals,” he said.
He also recommended immediate autopsies to determine the cause of the deaths and urged that the findings be made public to give the public a full picture of what happened.
NAN reports that Gov. Umar Bago of Niger announced that the state had set up a committee to investigate the root causes of the deaths.
He said the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Police Force and NSCDC had also set up committees to unravel the causes of the deaths.
Bago said his administration values the lives of citizens and would not tolerate injustice, assuring that the circumstances surrounding the deaths would be thoroughly investigated.(NAN)
