6 Of 37 Dead Niger Miners Were Union Members – Mining Workers’ Union

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Mining Workers (NUMW), Comrade Musa Adamu Nasiru, has disclosed that six of the miners who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State were registered members of the union.

He told the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Niger State Government, sitting in Minna, that 10 of the 65 miners arrested by the NSCDC were members of his union, adding that six died while the remaining four survived.

“Out of the people who died in custody, 10 of my members were in detention. Six died and four of them survived,” Nasiru said.

He disclosed that he was informed of the miners’ deaths in NSCDC custody by the Niger State Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Qasim Mohammed Danjuma, after which he delegated some union members to the corps to confirm the incident.

Also testifying before the commission, the Niger State Chairman of the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mallam Abdulrazak Yusuf Mohammed, said he was responsible for all miners, mining cooperative societies, artisanal miners and licensed miners in the state.

He said his duties included coordinating the activities of both licensed and artisanal miners in Niger State.

Mohammed told the commission that between 15 and 17 September 2026, he was in his hometown in Borgu when he received information about the incident from the Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Qasim Danjuma Mohammed.

“On receiving the information, I put a call to my vice-chairman. As an association, I delegated some of my members to ascertain the number of people in detention.

“I was told that 65 people were in detention, out of whom only 17 survived. Forty-eight of them died in custody,” he told the commission.

He further told the commission that after verifying the reported death toll of 48, he discovered that the majority of those who died were from the Tunga area of Minna.