Niger Miners’ Deaths: Akinlosotu Urges Tinubu to Declare State of Emergency in Detention Facilities

Blessing Akinlosotu, a public affairs analyst and director of the National Civil Society Council of Nigeria, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to declare a state of emergency in detention and correctional facilities nationwide. His call followed the deaths of 37 alleged illegal miners held by the NSCDC in Niger State; a committee led by DSS Deputy Director-General Jonathan Kure said they died of suffocation. Akinlosotu described the Minna detention facility as deplorable, unhealthy, inhumane and overcrowded. He called for the committee’s recommendations to be fully implemented and for those found responsible to be punished, citing systemic underfunding as a factor in the crisis.