Corpses of the miners Photo: Facebook
By Abdullahi Abubakar
Niger State Governor Umar Bago has said he saw several dead bodies with blood stains, burns, bruises and cuts when he visited the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) facility where 37 suspected illegal miners died in custody.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Bago said the bodies were lying “on the floor and outside” when he arrived, while some detainees who were still alive were taken to hospital.
The governor said the NSCDC facility is a new office and not an old detention centre, but questioned whether the cell was large enough to accommodate the number of detainees reportedly held there.
“Honestly speaking, the cell is not an old facility. In fact, it is just their new office. They just moved into that office not quite and the facility is practically very new,” Bago said.
He, however, said he was disturbed by the condition in which he found the detainees.
“Now, the issue of the state of the cell. When we got there, I saw a lot of dead corpses on the floor and outside and some had blood stains in their noses, in their mouths and some had a lot of burns and kind of bruises on their body,” he said.
“And some even had some cuts on their bodies.”
Bago said the condition of the victims prompted him to order that the bodies be taken to the state mortuary, while those who were still alive were rushed to hospital.
“And that made me to ask them to take them to the state mortuary because they were already lying on the floor,” he said.
“And those that were still breathing were now rushed to the hospital where they were attended to. All of them have survived, some are still in hospital though and that is what we know about it.”
The governor said the size of the cell would need to be properly assessed to determine whether it was suitable for the number of people detained there.
“But the cell is not an old cell. But the size of the cell to take that amount of people will need probably statistics or science to prove whether it has a capacity for 100 people or 50 people or even 30 people,” he said.
