Families Await Answers as Police Take Over Probe Into Deaths of 37 Miners

For the families of 37 artisanal miners, the past few days have brought grief without answers. The miners died while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and now the Niger State Police Command has taken over the scene, launching a full investigation into what happened to them.

The move came on the directive of Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Rilwan Disu, part of what the command described as an effort to ensure accountability, transparency and respect for constitutional human rights provisions — language that, for the families waiting to bury their loved ones, translates into a promise that someone will be held responsible.

According to the command’s spokesperson, SP Wasiu Abiodun, the Commissioner of Police for Niger State, Adamu Abdullahi Elleman, ordered Operation Flush patrol teams to secure and cordon off the scene, while the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department in Minna began preliminary forensic work to piece together the circumstances of the deaths.

The command sought to reassure grieving relatives and the wider public that the process would be handled with care.

It said the investigation would be conducted diligently and professionally, with every effort directed at establishing the facts, and appealed for calm, patience and cooperation while the inquiry runs its course.

Any findings, it added, would be handled in accordance with existing laws and due process.

Elsewhere, in Osun State, families touched by a separate wave of violence received a different kind of update.

The state police command said its investigation into recent killings had produced useful leads, and gave assurances that those responsible would eventually be tracked down and brought to justice.

Spokesperson Abiodun Ojelabi said some individuals already identified in connection with the killings remained at large, but stressed that no effort would be spared in pursuing them.

The command appealed to anyone with credible information to come forward, promising that such information would be treated with strict confidentiality — an assurance aimed at residents who may be too afraid to speak up.

The command also revealed it had received intelligence about a planned protest by a group it referred to as the “Congress of Cultists,” allegedly linked to the Neo-Black Movement, also known as Black Axe.

It warned individuals or groups considering using the protest to cause chaos or disrupt public peace to reconsider, adding that police and other security agencies would not allow anyone to exploit the situation to endanger lives, property, or the peace families in the state depend on.