Bago vows to unravel private firm employee’s death in NSCDC cell

Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago. Photo: State Govt

The Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago has vowed to address the death of Emmanuel an Igbo-speaking employee of a private firm who died alongside the 37 miners.

The governor made this known on Sunday when he attended the third day Muslim prayers for the repose of the 37 late miners who died in the detention facility of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence.

He noted that preliminary information indicated that some people were already in the detention cells before the arrested miners were brought into the cell, stressing that the investigation would determine who was detained earlier and how the deceased came to be detained in the same cell with the 37 miners.

Bago cited the example of the Igbo man whom he said had already been detained for allegedly stealing from his employer before the miners were brought in and was among those who died in the cell.

Arewa PUNCH learnt that Emmanuel also  died while in the custody of the NSCDC, days after he was arrested by his employer over an alleged financial discrepancy in the firm’s ledger.

Family sources said Emmanuel was arrested at his workplace around the Obasanjo complex by his boss following an alleged accounting error that resulted in the shortage of funds remittances and had been detained in the NSCDC custody from Friday before the suspected miners were brought into the same cell where he eventually died.

Our correspondent further gathered that between Friday and Thursday of the following week that he died, his parents repeatedly pleaded with Emmanuel’s boss to intervene and facilitate his bail, to enable him return to work and refund the money allegedly missing, but the unnamed  boss declined the request.

The deceased, until his death, therefore, remained in detention until the miners were later arrested and kept in the same cell with him.

Narrating his last contact with his son, Emmanuel’s father simply identified as Emeka, said, “I visited him on Wednesday and found him healthy and mentally stable. During the visit, we discussed possible ways to resolve the matter and recover the money his boss claimed was missing.”

Emmanuel’s mother was also said to have approached his boss’s wife and pleaded with her as woman to woman to intervene over his son’s continued detention but the woman also declined, saying her husband had decided, and the decision was okay with her.

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Continuing, Emmanuel’s father stated, “The situation of things took a tragic turn on Thursday morning when i returned to the NSCDC facility with some food for Emmanuel, only to be confronted with my son’s lifeless body.”

Arewa PUNCH learnt that initially, the NSCDC wanted to conceal the knowledge of Emmanuel being among those who died in their cell, but pressure from the deceased family and the media who insisted on bringing to public the issue forced the operatives to later admit to the allegations bordering on the death of the 25-year-old Emmanuel.

It was also gathered that the death of the miners led Governor Bago to impose a curfew in the state when some hoodlums took advantage of the situation to cause unrest in the capital city between Friday and Saturday.

The hoodlums had stormed the mosque where the governor and the Emir of Minna came to observe the rhird day prayer. They began throwing stones at the governor in the mosque but were stopped by security operatives.

As such, Bago assured the restless crowd that no stone would be left unturned in the government’s investigation of the deaths.

 “Government is doing everything possible to get to the root of this matter. When that is done, it will be made very public. We are not going to take anything for granted. We are going to probe deeply so that we can get the real causes of these deaths,” Bago insisted.

He disclosed that his government would enforce a ban on mining activities in residential areas in the city and appealed to residents of Minna and other Nigerlites to shun violence, assuring them that the curfew imposed following the unrest would be lifted after the night of the prayer to allow residents to return to their normal activities.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of the NSCDC Mohammed Muti who spoke with Arewa PUNCH said he could not confirm Emmanuel’s  detention because all the personnel involved in the detention and death of the illegal miners had been arrested and detained at the office Abuja headquarters.

“All those in-charge of the cell have been arrested and taken to our Abuja headquarters. They are facing prosecution. They are the ones I can get the record from, and the cell itself is sealed for the police to conduct their investigation,” he disclosed to our correspondent.