MINNA, NIGERIA – In a chilling account of brutality and acute neglect, survivors have accused Nigerian prison guards of causing the deaths of 37 detainees by spraying an unidentified substance into an overcrowded holding cell and ignoring their desperate pleas for help.
The shocking incident, which took place in Minna, Niger State, has ignited fierce protests across the country and thrust Nigeria’s notoriously poor detention conditions into the global spotlight.
According to a Reuters investigation, the tragedy unfolded after approximately 50 detained artisanal miners, many of them teenagers, were crammed into an already packed cell. When the detainees complained about the suffocating conditions, the response from the guards was allegedly fatal.
“At first, we thought they were trying to put some scent into the room because there were so many people inside,” survivor Isah told Reuters. But the situation quickly escalated into a nightmare. “About an hour later, detainees began behaving erratically and falling unconscious… Then, one after another, they started dying.”
Another survivor, 29-year-old Dauda Shehu, corroborated the horrifying sequence of events. “They sprayed something which smelled like a perfume,” Shehu stated. “Hours later we started feeling throats itching, then we started struggling to breathe. People started dying.”
Panic erupted inside the tiny, locked room. Survivors described a desperate scramble for survival, with detainees pounding on the locked doors and screaming for assistance that never came. Some victims reportedly became disoriented and aggressive before collapsing.
A third unnamed survivor, speaking in Hausa to a local television station, recounted similar details to senior government officials, including Nigeria’s Interior Minister. “We again complained but were ignored, they then locked the cell and sprayed something like scent… I don’t know what was sprayed but … it smelt like pepper.”
The 37 victims, many buried immediately in accordance with Islamic tradition, have become a catalyst for widespread outrage. Clashes broke out on Friday, resulting in at least one additional death and prompting Niger officials to impose a strict 24-hour curfew.
The government has suspended some senior officials from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) pending an investigation. However, neither the NSCDC, the interior ministry, nor the Niger state government have officially responded to questions from ABT NEWS regarding the incident.
The exact nature of the substance sprayed into the cell remains unconfirmed, but the testimonies paint a damning picture of alleged state-sanctioned cruelty. As families mourn and the community demands justice, the silence from the authorities only deepens the outrage.
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