AAC Party Demands Sacking Of NSCDC DG, Commandant After 37 Suspects Died In Custody | Sahara Reporters

The party also demanded an independent investigation into the deaths, including a forensic autopsy and the public disclosure of the findings.

The African Action Congress (AAC), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, has called for the immediate removal of the leadership of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) following the deaths of 37 suspected illegal miners in the agency’s custody in Minna, Niger State.

The party also demanded an independent investigation into the deaths, including a forensic autopsy and the public disclosure of the findings.

The call was contained in a statement signed by the Chairman of the AAC in the FCT, Agena Robert Ande, on Friday.

The 37 detainees were among scores of people arrested by NSCDC operatives during operations against suspected illegal mining activities in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of Niger State on September 15 and 16.
The detainees were subsequently found dead inside an NSCDC detention facility in Minna in the early hours of September 17.

The Niger State NSCDC Command initially attributed the deaths to a suspected disease outbreak, although the agency later stressed that the actual cause had not been established and would be determined through medical and laboratory examinations.

The development has triggered widespread outrage, protests and calls for accountability, with questions raised over the conditions in which the suspects were detained.

Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago confirmed the death of 37 detainees and said authorities were considering several possible explanations, including suffocation arising from overcrowding and possible exposure to hazardous substances associated with mining activities.

The Federal Government has since suspended the Niger State NSCDC Commandant, Suberu Siyaka Aniviye, pending investigation into the incident.

President Bola Tinubu has also ordered a full and transparent investigation into the deaths, while the NSCDC Commandant-General, Ahmed Abubakar, constituted a high-powered panel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

However, reacting to the development, the AAC FCT chairman questioned the initial explanation of a possible disease outbreak.
Ande argued that the deaths of 37 people while under the control and protection of a government security agency demanded much more than internal investigations.

“You cannot have 37 human beings arrested as suspects, kept under your custody, and they all die without any credible explanation as to why they died,” he said.

He described the reported disease-outbreak explanation as “questionable, suspicious and totally unacceptable”, while alleging that the circumstances required an independent examination.

The AAC chairman went further to allege that the incident could have involved deliberate wrongdoing, describing it as “murder in custody”.

The party therefore called on President Tinubu to remove the NSCDC Director-General and all officials allegedly responsible for the supervision of the detention facility.

“We in the African Action Congress, FCT Chapter, are therefore calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately dismiss the entire NSCDC team involved, and the DG himself must go,” the statement said.

The party also demanded that the remains of the deceased be preserved and subjected to what it described as a “very vigorous and independent autopsy”.

It further called for the complete publication of the findings of any medical or forensic examination conducted to establish how the detainees died.
In addition, the AAC demanded the establishment of an independent judicial panel of inquiry involving human rights organisations and representatives of the victims’ families.

The party said such an inquiry should investigate not only the deaths but also the circumstances surrounding the arrest, detention, treatment and medical care of the suspects.

For the AAC, the deaths must not be allowed to disappear into another government investigation without clear answers.

“We cannot continue to have criminal terrorists killing Nigerians on one hand, and on the other hand, the Government itself obviously killing Nigerians in custody. Enough of this bloodshed!” Ande said.
He called for accountability and insisted that the deaths of the 37 detainees should not be swept under the carpet. Nigerian lives matter,” he added.