Miners’ deaths: CSO calls for national emergency on detention centres

Executive Director of NCSCN, Blessing Akinlosotu, speaking at the press confeence in Abuja.

The National Civil Society Council of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to declare a national emergency on detention facilities and correctional centres following the death of 37 miners in a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps facility in Minna, Niger State.

The council also urged President Bola Tinubu to approve a special intervention fund and increase budgetary allocations to security agencies to upgrade detention facilities and improve personnel training.

The Executive Director of NCSCN, Blessing Akinlosotu, made the call at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday while reacting to the report of the Federal Government’s independent committee that investigated the incident.

Akinlosotu said the committee’s findings showed that the detention facility was in a deplorable condition, describing it as unhealthy, inhumane, severely overcrowded and unfit for human habitation.

“For NCSCN, the major and indisputable takeaway from the report is that the condition of the detention facility in Minna was deplorable, unhealthy, inhumane, severely overcrowded and grossly unfit for human habitation, with no room for proper breathing and ventilation, leading to the suffocation of detainees,” he said.

The council condemned the conduct of the NSCDC officers involved in the incident and commended the suspension of 21 officers in connection with the deaths.

It, however, demanded tougher sanctions, including dismissal and prosecution of officers of the Niger State Command found culpable.

The group said the tragedy reflected not only negligence but also inadequate funding of security agencies, which it argued had been saddled with extensive responsibilities without commensurate investment in infrastructure.

“The NSCDC and other national security agencies appear overwhelmed with enormous responsibilities, such as securing the lives and property of citizens, protection of solid minerals and prevention of illegal mining, protection of critical national assets and infrastructure, Safe School Initiative, agro-rangers for farmers-herders peace, and disaster management, yet they operate with medieval detention facilities,” Akinlosotu said.

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“You cannot demand 21st-century security delivery with 19th-century funding.”

The council called on the Federal Government to make adequate budgetary provisions for the rehabilitation and modernisation of detention facilities nationwide, as well as improve funding for the country’s security architecture.

It also urged the government to discourage the unjust detention of citizens and ensure that suspects were promptly arraigned before competent courts.

According to the council, expeditious prosecution of suspects would help curb prolonged and unlawful detention while safeguarding citizens’ constitutional rights to fair hearing and human dignity.

It urged Tinubu to carefully consider and implement the committee’s recommendations, including the construction of standard, humane and well-ventilated detention facilities in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The council, therefore, commended the diligence, patriotism and thoroughness of the committee chaired by the former Deputy Director-General of the Department of State Services, Jonathan Kure.

It also defended the NSCDC Commandant-General, Ahmed Audi, arguing that the committee’s report did not indict him over the incident.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the panel report never indicted the Commandant-General. The report clearly established that the operation in M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto was carried out without operational order, without knowledge and without approval of the national headquarters,” it reads.