37 Miners Died In NSCDC Cell And Nobody Wants To Say Why

Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago of Niger State has told the BBC that survivors of the NSCDC detention in Minna said the 37 dead illegal miners were sprayed with an unidentified substance before they died. The arrests happened on 15 and 16 September 2026 during what the NSCDC called a burst operation. By 17 September, the Corps admitted that many of those arrested had died in custody.

Bago told the BBC, "Some of the people wey survive say dem spray dem sometin like pepper. E fit be say dem teargas dem or sometin... pesin come carry sometin wey be like perfume spray for dem na so pipo start to dey cough and pipo start to dey choke." He also described what he saw: swollen bodies, peeling skin, foam at the mouth, bleeding from noses and mouths. The NSCDC is blaming an outbreak of disease. The governor is not repeating that claim.

The Federal Government has now suspended 20 NSCDC officers, including the Niger State Commandant, and set up a 10-man committee with two weeks to find out who the dead miners were, how they were arrested, and what killed them. The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced the suspensions on his X account. Here is the question nobody is answering: if the cause of death was disease, why were the survivors talking about a spray?