Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has imposed a 12-hour curfew in Minna to forestall further breach of law and order
The governor announced this when he received Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on a condolence visit over the death of 37 artisanal miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)
The governor said the curfew, which begins today, is between 6pm and 6am to checkmate attacks on public and private assets by the protesters
He said the deceased miners were between the ages of 14 and 18 years
“We don’t know the real causes of this but they could just be two The first one, from the report we have is that 67 people were arrested and were detained in the civil Defence cell at their office. And some of the people that survived have claimed that it was suffocation and dehydration. On the surface, the forensic revealed from hospital and mortuary indicated that some of the corpses have foams in their mouths with blood stains and also part of their skins were peeling. So, we cannot rule out mathene, or swanine or lead poisoning.
“However, there is need for proper investigation on the root cause of this We want to thank you for immediately suspending the state Commandant who gave the order for these arrests and detained people for more than 24 hours in the cell and in that number. That was callous and reckless. The officers that were on duty said they heard screaming from the people in the cell calling for help, but they kept deaf ears to those pleas and we woke up to a very sad thing,” he said.
Bago said state transport company’s buses and offices belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) had been destroyed, saying that “vandals are taking over the street and there is need for us to curtail this so that we can have calm in the society”
Bago also announced ban on mining in the state and directed all miners to stay off their sites
He urged citizens to exercise restraint and assured that the government would get to the root causes of the incident to forestall recurrence
He said the activities of illegal mining was taking a toll on school children, leading to dop out of children from school
Governor Bago thanked the minister for his quick response
He said the incident was devastating to the families of the victims and the state government
The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, accompanied by the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, described the incident as unfortunate
He said the president was concerned and worried about the incident
He said the incident could stain the progress and effort of the government both at the state and Federal levels
While assuring that the incident would not happen again, Tunji-Ojo said his ministry would do everything possible to ensuring that justice is served
He said the federal government would collaborate with the Niger State government to do the needful