Tanya Davidson
Abuja — Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has donated N20 million to families of the 37 suspected artisanal miners who died while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Minna, Niger State.
Atiku announced the donation during a visit to Minna, where he met the affected families and survivors of the incident.
The 37 detainees died on September 17, days after they were arrested during NSCDC operations targeting suspected illegal mining activities in Niger State.
The circumstances surrounding the deaths remain under investigation. The Federal Government has constituted a 10-member independent committee, while 20 NSCDC officers, including the Niger State commandant, have been suspended pending the investigation.
Atiku said the financial support was intended to assist families who lost relatives in the tragedy, while calling for the circumstances surrounding the deaths to be established.
“Thirty-seven young Nigerians entered the custody of the state alive and did not return alive to their families. That tragedy demands truth, justice and accountability,” he said.
The former vice president said he was particularly disturbed by accounts from survivors about the conditions in which the detainees were held.
“It was a gory tale listening to one of the survivors,” Atiku said, adding that a survivor told him more than 68 detainees had been held in one small facility and that conditions became so desperate that some resorted to drinking one another’s urine to survive.
He said the incident raised questions beyond the immediate circumstances of the deaths, particularly about the economic conditions pushing young Nigerians into hazardous livelihoods.
“But beyond establishing what happened in that detention facility, we must also ask why so many of our young people are being pushed into dangerous and precarious livelihoods simply to survive,” he said.
Atiku said Nigeria needed to deliberately invest in young people by expanding access to education, skills, jobs and legitimate economic opportunities.
He also linked the tragedy to broader concerns over the rising cost of living, arguing that government economic policies should ultimately be assessed by their effect on ordinary Nigerians.
“Economic reform must ultimately be measured by what it does to the lives of ordinary people,” he said.
Atiku’s visit also included condolence visits to the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouk Bahago, and former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
The Niger State tragedy has generated public backlash, with federal and state-level investigations underway to establish the causes of the deaths and determine responsibility.
