THEY were packed so tightly into a tiny cell that some of the detainees could barely move.
Dozens of teenagers and young men arrested in a raid on illegal gold mines outside Minna, Nigeria, had been crammed into the room when guards sprayed an unidentified substance through the door, according to three survivors.
Within about an hour, detainees began behaving erratically and collapsing. Others shouted for help and pounded on the locked door, the survivors said.
“Then, one after another, they started dying,” said Adamu Isah, 22, who survived the ordeal.
At least 37 people died in the incident on Sept 16, many of them teenagers working in artisanal gold mines.
Their deaths have triggered protests and renewed concerns about conditions in Nigeria’s detention facilities, where suspects can spend long periods awaiting trial.
The cause of the deaths remains unknown.
Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered an investigation, while several senior officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the paramilitary agency that carried out the raid, have been suspended pending its outcome.
Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has appointed a 10-member panel that includes a retired intelligence official, a former head of the Nigerian Law School, a medical professor and a human rights lawyer.
“To Nigerians, I say this: We owe you the truth,” Tunji-Ojo said in Abuja. “No officer, no matter how highly placed ... will be shielded if found culpable.”
The NSCDC initially suggested that the detainees may have died from an unspecified disease but later said the cause had not been established.
The bodies were presented to journalists recently, but Reuters could not determine the cause of death.
A spokesperson for Minna General Hospital said the bodies showed no obvious signs of torture when they arrived, although there were blister and bite marks.
Brown fluid was also observed coming from the mouths and noses of some of the dead.
Pathologists conducted forensic examinations on three bodies, with samples due to be sent to Lagos for further analysis. It was not clear when the results would be available.
‘We started struggling to breathe’
Isah said he was among a group of teenagers and young men rounded up during a sweep of gold mines outside Minna.
They were taken back into the city and, at about 8pm on Sept 16, around 17 detainees were locked inside a cell measuring about 5 square metres.
The cramped room soon became even more crowded when nearly 50 more detainees were brought in.
They complained to the guards that there was not enough room, Isah said.
Shortly afterwards, officers sprayed an unidentified substance under the door.
“At first, we thought they were trying to put some scent into the room because there were so many people inside,” he said.
About an hour later, people began acting strangely and losing consciousness.
Dauda Shehu, 29, another survivor, described a similar sequence of events.
“They sprayed something which smelt like perfume,” he said.
“Hours later we started feeling throats itching, then we started struggling to breathe. People started dying.”
Isah said some detainees became disoriented and aggressive before collapsing.
Others screamed and hammered on the locked door, pleading for help.
Another survivor gave a similar account in an interview broadcast by Nigeria’s TVC News.
Speaking in Hausa to senior government officials. including Niger state governor Umar Bago and Tunji-Ojo, he said detainees repeatedly complained about the size of the cell.
“We kept complaining that it was tiny, yet none of them listened to us,” he said.
He said guards later locked the cell and sprayed something that smelled like perfume.
“I don’t know what was sprayed but ... it smelt like pepper,” he said.
The survivor said he eventually fainted and woke the following morning.
Reuters could not independently verify the survivors’ accounts or establish what substance, if any, was sprayed into the cell. It was also unclear why the substance was used.
Investigation under way
The NSCDC, Nigeria’s interior ministry, which oversees the agency, and the Niger state government did not respond to written questions from Reuters.
Many of the victims were buried immediately in accordance with Islamic tradition.
The deaths have fuelled anger in Minna.
Protests escalated into clashes that left one person dead and prompted Niger state authorities to impose a 24-hour curfew.
The investigation will now have to establish not only what killed the detainees but also how so many people came to be held together in such a confined space – and what happened after they began calling for help. — Reuters
