The Niger Delta Rights Advocates (NDRA) has endorsed the arrest and detention of 24 serving personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) over the deaths of 33 suspected illegal miners in Minna, Niger State.
The political rights group, in a statement signed by its Director of Strategy, Dr Chucks Alozie, on Monday, described the incident of September 17, 2026, as a national disaster and commended the NSCDC high command for swiftly taking action against personnel allegedly connected, directly or remotely, to the incident.
NDRA said the decision to arrest and detain the personnel demonstrated the agency’s commitment to an open and unbiased investigation, as well as its sense of responsibility to ordinary Nigerians and respect for the sanctity of human life.
The group said NSCDC Commandant-General, Prof Abubakar Audi, had demonstrated that the agency under his leadership would not condone what it described as an obvious breach of the right to life.
It cited Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in support of its position.
“We demand that no stone be left unturned in exposing all the culprits whose actions or inaction resulted in the September 17 2026 incident,” the group said.
NDRA also called for the immediate and unconditional release of persons, particularly minors, being held in detention facilities across the country where their alleged offences are bailable.
The rights group said such a measure was necessary, particularly in view of the circumstances surrounding the Minna incident.
While welcoming the committee established by the Ministry of Interior to independently investigate the incident, NDRA called for an expansion of its mandate.
According to the group, the committee should go beyond determining what led to the deaths and recommend long-term measures capable of preventing a recurrence, as well as short-term mitigating measures.
It specifically called for the inclusion of training and retraining programmes for all paramilitary agencies under the Ministry of Interior as part of the committee’s recommendations.
NDRA also demanded adequate financial compensation for the families of the victims, saying the investigation should address both immediate and long-term measures arising from the incident.
The group further argued that the NSCDC, like other paramilitary agencies in the country, required regular training to keep personnel abreast of global realities and improve the efficiency of their operations.
It identified responsibilities such as combating vandalism, fighting oil theft and illegal bunkering, as well as disaster management, as areas where effective training was required.
However, NDRA called for the convocation of an emergency National Security Summit to examine issues underlying the country’s internal security architecture and develop a national roadmap.
“In the interim, we demand for the proper digitization of all mining activities across the country, with an inter-agency collaboration to checkmate economic sabotage,” the group said.
NDRA said the proposed measures were necessary to strengthen accountability, improve the capacity of security agencies and prevent further loss of lives arising from activities associated with illegal mining.
