Abdulhamid Kabara assumed office Friday as the new Niger State Commandant of Nigeria’s Security and Civil Defence Corps, taking over a command thrown into crisis by the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners in the agency’s custody earlier this week.
Kabara replaces Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, who was suspended by the Ministry of Interior after the detainees died inside an NSCDC holding cell in Minna in the early hours of September 17. Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has said 67 people were packed into the cell where the deaths occurred, a detail that has become central to the widening investigation into what killed them.
The Eastern Updates has gathered that the miners were arrested during enforcement raids conducted September 15 and 16 around the Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi Housing Estate and Lukoto village, sites where NSCDC operatives had targeted suspected illegal gold mining activity. Some of the dead were internally displaced people from Shiroro local government area, according to accounts gathered from residents and relatives in Minna.
Aniviye initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak inside the cell, a claim he made without specifying which illness he believed was responsible or how many people had died. He said the bodies had been deposited at General Hospital, Minna, for medical examination to determine the actual cause of death. Governor Bago has since said investigators are also examining overcrowding and possible exposure to hazardous substances tied to mining operations as potential contributing factors, and has stopped short of endorsing the disease explanation.
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One survivor, Dauda Shehu, gave a different account from his hospital bed, alleging that the deaths resulted from excessive heat and overcrowding rather than illness. He described 66 people being held in a single cell — a figure close to the 67 cited separately by the governor — and said conditions inside had deteriorated sharply before the deaths were discovered.
The Federal Government has responded with a series of administrative and investigative measures. Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo announced the suspension of 20 NSCDC officers in connection with the deaths, including the officer in charge of station guard duties, two station guards and three of the arresting officers. Tunji-Ojo also constituted a 10-member independent committee, chaired by retired Department of State Services Deputy Director-General Jonathan Kure, to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
President Bola Tinubu has separately ordered a full and transparent federal investigation, saying his government would not tolerate mass deaths resulting from official negligence, dereliction of duty or a failure by public officials to protect people in their custody. Nigeria’s police force has opened its own parallel inquiry, with the Niger State Police Commissioner directing the state criminal investigation department to examine the case independently of the federal and interior ministry probes already underway.
The deaths triggered public anger in Minna, where residents staged protests that prompted Governor Bago to impose a 24-hour curfew in the state capital. Rights organizations have since pressed for an independent accounting of what happened, with Amnesty International noting that the group in custody included minors and that the deaths occurred within one to two days of the miners’ arrest.
Kabara, addressing his new command Friday, said he was saddened by the loss of life and extended condolences to the families of the deceased. He told officers that enforcement duties around illegal mining must be carried out without compromising the safety and dignity of people held in custody. “At a moment like this, beyond arrests, investigations, enforcement and the fight against illegal mining, we must remember one fundamental truth: every human life matters,” Kabara said.
The new commandant said the corps would continue pursuing its mandate against illegal mining while operating within the bounds of the law and safeguarding the welfare of detainees. He closed his remarks by asking that the families of the deceased be granted strength as they mourn, without addressing what specific changes, if any, he intends to make to detention practices in the command he now leads.
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The medical examinations Aniviye cited as necessary to determine the cause of death had not been publicly released as of Friday, and no timeline for the federal committee’s findings has been announced.
Illegal mining enforcement in Niger State has a history of turning violent well before this week’s deaths. Earlier this year, suspected illegal miners in the Bosso local government area opened fire on a joint NSCDC and police patrol, killing one operative and burning an NSCDC vehicle before security forces were overpowered and forced to retreat. That earlier clash illustrates the volatile enforcement environment Kabara now inherits, one in which the corps has struggled to balance aggressive crackdowns on unlicensed mining with the basic custodial obligations now under federal scrutiny.
Niger State’s Shiroro area, where several of this week’s victims came from, has also faced years of displacement tied to banditry and insecurity, conditions that have pushed some residents toward informal mining work as a source of income even as authorities have intensified efforts to shut such operations down.
