The Coalition for the Protection of Democracy (COPDEM) has condemned the reported deaths of over 50 suspected illegal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State, demanding a transparent and independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
The deaths occurred after scores of suspected illegal miners were arrested during NSCDC operations in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Niger State on September 15 and 16. The NSCDC said the detainees were found dead in the early hours of September 17 following what it described as a suspected disease outbreak. The corpses were subsequently deposited at General Hospital, Minna, for medical examination.
The NSCDC headquarters has since constituted a high-powered investigative team to establish what happened, including examining the condition of the suspects when they were arrested, the period they spent in custody, detention conditions and the medical attention provided to them. The Corps has also stressed that the actual cause of death remains subject to medical and laboratory confirmation.
COPDEM said the development must not be treated simply as another enforcement operation gone wrong. According to the organisation, once citizens are arrested and placed in government custody, the state assumes a duty to protect their lives and dignity, regardless of the allegations against them.
Children increasingly exposed to mining
COPDEM also expressed concern about the wider circumstances surrounding illegal mining in Niger State, particularly the reported involvement of children.
The Niger State Child Rights Protection Agency recently disclosed that it had rescued 19 children working at mining sites, including a child reportedly as young as eight years old. The agency said the children’s parents were required to sign undertakings to prevent them from returning the children to mining activities.
COPDEM said the development should be viewed against the background of Nigeria’s worsening household economic pressures. The International Monetary Fund reported in June that poverty had reached an estimated 63 percent at the national poverty line, while about 27 million Nigerians were estimated to have experienced food insecurity in late 2025. The IMF also warned that higher food and fuel prices could further aggravate poverty and food insecurity.
The organisation said these figures help explain why vulnerable families can become increasingly dependent on whatever income-generating opportunities are available around them, including dangerous informal mining.
COPDEM argued that the presence of children in mining communities is therefore not merely a law-enforcement problem but also a poverty, education and social-protection crisis.
Where parents cannot reliably provide food, school materials, transportation and other basic needs, COPDEM said children become vulnerable to being withdrawn from school and pushed into hazardous work.
‘Children should be in classrooms, not mining pits’
COPDEM said it was particularly troubling that children are reportedly entering mining sites at a time when government agencies are simultaneously intensifying enforcement against illegal mining.
The organisation maintained that arrests alone cannot solve the problem if the economic circumstances that drive vulnerable Nigerians into illegal mining remain unaddressed.
It called for greater investment in basic education, school feeding, social protection, skills development and livelihood programmes for families living around mining communities.
COPDEM also demanded stronger enforcement against adults and operators who employ or recruit children for hazardous mining activities.
“Children belong in classrooms, not mining pits. A child who is forced to work in a dangerous mining environment because the family cannot afford food or education is a victim of a wider socioeconomic failure,” COPDEM said.
Questions over the Minna deaths
COPDEM said the deaths in NSCDC custody make the situation even more urgent.
While the NSCDC has not established the cause of death, reports have raised questions about the conditions in which the detainees were held. The Associated Press reported an allegation from a survivor that the detainees were held in an overcrowded, poorly ventilated cell, while an intelligence report cited by AFP also raised overcrowding and ventilation concerns. These allegations remain matters for investigation and should not be treated as established causes of death until forensic and medical examinations are completed.
COPDEM therefore called for the investigation to establish:
the exact number of people arrested;
the identities of all those who died;
the precise medical and forensic causes of death;
the condition of the detainees when they were arrested;
the number of people held in the detention facility;
the ventilation, sanitation and general conditions of the cell;
the medical attention provided to detainees;
whether any warning signs of illness were ignored; and
whether negligence, overcrowding, abuse or any other violation contributed to the deaths.
The organisation further urged that the autopsy findings be made public and that anyone found responsible for wrongdoing or negligence be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
COPDEM: Government must address the root causes
COPDEM said the government cannot sustainably combat illegal mining without addressing the poverty and unemployment that make mining attractive to desperate Nigerians.
It also acknowledged that illegal mining has wider consequences, including environmental degradation, insecurity and the potential financing of criminal networks. The organisation therefore called for a balanced approach combining enforcement with legitimate economic opportunities for mining communities.
“The government must confront both sides of this crisis: the criminal exploitation of Nigeria’s mineral resources and the economic desperation that pushes vulnerable citizens, including children, into dangerous mining activities,” COPDEM said.
The organisation urged the federal and Niger State governments to strengthen social protection, expand access to education, regulate artisanal mining more effectively and ensure that children rescued from mining sites receive rehabilitation and are returned to school.
COPDEM also called on security agencies to uphold the constitutional rights and dignity of every person in their custody.
“Whether a person is a child working at a mining site or an adult arrested for suspected illegal mining, the Nigerian state has a responsibility to protect human life. Accountability must begin from the mining site and extend to every detention facility where citizens are held,” the organisation said.
COPDEM said the Minna tragedy should become a turning point for a comprehensive review of illegal mining enforcement, detention conditions and the socioeconomic vulnerability of mining communities across Niger State and Nigeria.
The organisation insisted that the answer to poverty-driven illegal mining cannot be to criminalise poverty while ignoring its causes; neither can enforcement agencies be permitted to operate without accountability for the welfare of people in their custody.
