Niger State Governor, Umaru Bago, has said the state government will not pay compensation, also known as Diyah, to the families of the 37 people who died while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.
Mr Bago disclosed this in an interview with Minna-based online television platform, Zarar Bunu, aired on Sunday.
He said the responsibility for paying compensation did not lie with the state government because the victims died in the custody of a federal security agency.
The governor, however, said the state government would support the affected families and work with relevant authorities to secure assistance for them.
“We are not bound to pay any compensation, except the Federal Government. Our own is to offer support,” he said.
Asked why the state government should not pay the compensation, Mr Bago said the incident occurred in Niger State only because that was where the arrests took place.
“What’s our own? It’s only a coincidence that it happened in our state. We didn’t send them (Civil Defence) to arrest anybody. We were not also aware of the arrest,” he said.
The governor also alleged that the NSCDC had a relationship with some of the miners arrested at the mining sites.
According to him, the NSCDC commandant had previously informed the state government that the mining sites where the arrests were made had been sealed.
“There was a time we asked that the MI Wushishi mining sites be shut, and the Civil Defence, being responsible for controlling mining activities, informed us that the sites had been shut. So you can now see from what happened that there is something between them,” he said.
Mr Bago said the state government was not informed after the arrests that the affected persons had been taken into custody.
He further disclosed that after receiving reports of the deaths on Thursday, he directed that the corpses be moved to the General Hospital, Minna, for autopsy and further investigation.
The governor said the investigation would establish the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Mr Bago also expressed regret over the riots that erupted in Minna following the incident, resulting in the destruction of public and private property.
The deaths occurred after the NSCDC arrested suspected illegal miners in Niger State, sparking public outrage and calls for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding their deaths in custody.