A teenage gold miner in Niger State, Nigeria, has accused personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) of firing on miners at a local gold‑mining site following the deaths of 37 suspected miners in NSCDC custody.
Speaking to News Central Television, the unnamed teenager said the NSCDC had been shooting at them and that heat could not have caused the deaths. “We are under 18, and we are not allowed to be taken inside a cell. Heat cannot kill a gold miner,” he said.
The boy also rejected the NSCDC’s explanation that the miners died of heat, insisting that they were not involved in illegal mining. “We are not illiterate. We are educated. We do this to help our parents in one or two. Our parents are very poor. We are the ones feeding our parents. It is what we do here that we can pay our school fees,” he added.
He called for a thorough and impartial investigation into the incident to determine the cause of the deaths and to bring anyone found responsible to justice. “The Niger State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps doesn’t have the right to shoot at us,” the teenager said.
<small>Source: Daily Post Nigeria — read the original story there.</small>
