Wants public release of investigative report
The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has demanded the arrest of owners of the illegal mining sites at Lt Gen Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi Estate and Lukoto Village in Minna, Niger State, where the 37 teenagers who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC) were arrested.
The NAS Cap’n, Dr Charles Meribole, in a statement entitled: ‘’NSCDC Custodial Deaths: Recurring Impunity of Security Agencies Must End’’ noted that the owners of the illegal mining sites were culpable in the tragic end of the teenagers by engaging them for cheap labour rather than to be in school.
There should be a broader inquiry into the ownership of the illegal mining sites where the teenagers were arrested. Section 131 of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007 makes unlawful mining without a license punishable under the law. Nigerians deserve to know the owners of the illegal sites that allowed teenagers, who are supposed to be in school, to engage in cheap labour at illegal mining sites, in gross violation of the Child Rights Act 2003 and the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act 2015. The owners of these illegal mining sites should be arrested and prosecuted, along with those found culpable in the deaths of the 37 teenagers.’’
Meribole, who insisted that the suspension of the NSCDC personnel is not justice, called for a departure from the past where government-instituted investigative panel reports are allowed to gather dust without punishment for indicted officials and compensation for victims.
‘’ The tragic death of the 37 teenagers in Minna should mark a turning point in the Nigerian government’s indifference to the implementation of investigative panel reports.
The investigation of the Minna tragedy must not become another bureaucratic
exercise whose findings gather dust. That cycle must end. The culture of
recurring impunity must stop.’’
He also advocated for reforms in the detention policy of the NSCDC, stressing that arresting a suspect over allegations of a crime committed should not strip suspects of their dignity and right to life.
‘’More importantly, this tragedy must also compel an urgent review of detention practices across the NSCDC commands and other law-enforcement agencies. Overcrowding, medical screening, emergency response, detainee monitoring, separation of minors from adults, sanitation, ventilation, and access to necessities cannot be treated as administrative details. They are matters of life and death. A detention facility must never become a place where a person disappears from public view and loses the protection of the law.
‘’The Federal Government must immediately
conduct an urgent audit of law enforcement and security agencies’ detention
facilities nationwide, particularly with respect to overcrowding, ventilation,
and emergency response.’’
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