Niger State Governor, Umaru Bago, has said any compensation due to the families of 37 suspected illegal miners who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps should be paid by the Federal Government.
Bago said the Niger State Government had no responsibility to pay compensation because the deceased were arrested and held by a federal security agency.
The governor made the clarification in an interview with Minna-based online television platform, Zarar Bunu, aired on Sunday.
According to him, the state government was neither involved in the arrests nor informed that the miners had been taken into custody.
“We are not bound to pay any compensation, except the Federal Government. Our own is to offer support,” Bago said.
He said the state government would nevertheless assist the affected families and engage relevant authorities to secure support for them.
Bago questioned why the state should bear responsibility for an incident involving a federal agency simply because the arrests took place in Niger State.
“What’s our own? It’s only a coincidence that it happened in our state. We didn’t send them (Civil Defence) to arrest anybody. We were not also aware of the arrest,” he said.
The governor also raised concerns over the NSCDC’s dealings with some of the miners, recalling that the state government had previously asked that mining activities at the MI Wushishi sites be stopped.
He said the NSCDC had subsequently informed the state government that the sites had been sealed.
“There was a time we asked that the MI Wushishi mining sites be shut, and the Civil Defence, being responsible for controlling mining activities, informed us that the sites had been shut. So you can now see from what happened that there is something between them,” he said.
Bago said the state government only became aware of the deaths after receiving reports on Thursday.
He subsequently directed that the bodies be taken to the General Hospital, Minna, for autopsy and further investigation.
The governor said the investigation would determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
The incident followed the arrest of suspected illegal miners in the state by the NSCDC and has generated public outrage, with calls for authorities to establish how the miners died while in custody.
The deaths also triggered unrest in Minna, leading to the destruction of public and private property.
Bago condemned the violence, saying the incident should be addressed through investigation and lawful processes.
