Niger miners’ death scene washed before probe — Panel chair

The chairman of the investigative committee probing the deaths of 33 miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Niger State, Jonathan Kure, has disclosed that the incident scene was washed before medical investigators could examine evidence that might have helped establish the cause of death.

Kure made this known while recounting the circumstances surrounding the deaths at an NSCDC detention facility on September 17, 2026, explaining that the medical and pathological teams needed evidence from the scene to conduct autopsies and toxicology tests.

Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Wednesday, Kure said the bodies had bloodstains and some of the victims had vomited before they died, but the scene had been washed before the investigative team arrived.

“And remember, there was this claim of either spray or disease and all that. Before we got there, all these had been washed up. Our pathological team, the medical team, when they went, we all needed all these things because when you do the autopsy, when you do the toxicology and all that, these are things that will give you signals as to what precisely led to the death,” he said.

According to Kure, 75 people were detained during an operation conducted on September 15 and 16, including 24 women. One detainee later took ill and was kept outside the cell, leaving 74 people to be detained in the facility.

He said the 24 women were held in a separate cell, while 50 men were locked in a single 12-by-12-metre cell.

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Kure explained that the men began complaining of heat and crying for water from the evening of September 16, but the cell guard refused to open the door after allegedly receiving instructions from a superior not to do so under any circumstances.

“The cell guard—only a single cell guard on duty—was told by one of his superiors when he was closing, ‘Don’t on no circumstance should you open this cell.’ And he was acting strictly on that order; he refused to use discretion. These people were dropping dead one after the other in the cell,” he said.

He added that when the cell was opened in the early hours of September 17, 33 of the 50 men were found dead, while 17 survived.

Kure said the incident occurred entirely within the NSCDC facility, adding that the investigative committee was examining the circumstances surrounding the deaths and the evidence available to determine what led to the tragedy.

The incident prompted the establishment of an investigative committee to determine the cause of the deaths and examine the circumstances surrounding the miners’ detention.