A survivor of the mass deaths in Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps custody in Niger State has said detainees began itching, fainting, biting one another and dying after officers sprayed a perfume-like substance into an overcrowded cell.
Abdullah Umar gave the account exclusively to SaharaReporters on Friday during a visit to the community. He said he was among those arrested on Tuesday while working at the Peoples Democratic Party secretariat. Officers took the group to their office, recorded names and locked them in a cell. More people were later brought in until about 28 were held together, he said.
Umar said the detainees were given no water and were left in intense heat. Some shouted for water and asked that the door be opened. No one answered, he said.
Around 8pm, he alleged, officers sprayed something that looked like perfume into every corner of the cell. After that, bodies began to itch and some people fainted. Detainees tore a carton found in the toilet and used it to fan themselves. Some hid in the toilet as conditions worsened.
“When people started dying, we were telling them that people were dying, but they didn’t listen,” Umar said.
“After they sprayed the substance, people started biting each other. Our bodies became so hot that we could not even hear each other properly.”
He said the cell was not opened until the following morning, by which time many detainees had already died.
The account comes after 37 suspected illegal miners were found dead in NSCDC custody in Minna. They were among scores arrested during operations at mining sites around the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas on September 15 and 16. Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago later said 67 artisanal and suspected illegal miners had been detained before 37 were found dead.
The NSCDC initially pointed to a suspected disease outbreak but said the cause had not been established. Medical examinations, autopsies and forensic investigations were ordered. Bago said investigators were looking at possible suffocation from overcrowding and exposure to hazardous substances linked to mining, and cautioned against a final conclusion before those examinations were complete.
The deaths led to protests in Minna. Authorities imposed a curfew after clashes between protesters and security forces. President Bola Tinubu ordered an investigation, and the Niger State NSCDC commandant was suspended pending the probe.
Survivors have alleged that an unidentified substance was sprayed in the crowded cell shortly before people began to suffer severe distress and die. Reuters separately reported that three survivors gave similar accounts. The official cause of the deaths remains unresolved.
Abdullah Ibrahim, whose son is alleged to have died after the arrests, said that the family heard a substance was sprayed into a dark, overcrowded cell in the evening and that people inside then began dying. Relatives were not allowed to see those arrested.
He identified his son as Safiyanu, 30, recently married and the family’s main provider. “He was the only person bringing food for us to eat because I don’t have any strength,” Ibrahim said.
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