*** Why I gave son’s corpse for autopsy — Father**
*** Body already decomposing — Parents demand justice**
By Aideloje Ojo
The Federal Government investigative panel on the death of 37 miners in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has commenced sitting in Minna, Niger State, with parents demanding justice.
The panel commenced work on Tuesday at the palace of the Emir of Minna behind closed doors, where parents of the deceased miners were invited to testify one after another.
Some of the parents who spoke with Blueprint said they have been kept in the dark and abandoned by the state government as no official has visited to condole with them.
Emeka Onyenuchiyi, the father of one of the victims, Emmanuel Emeka, told our reporter that in seeking justice, he volunteered his son’s body for autopsy.
He said, “My son was among the dead. He was not an illegal miner but was detained for six days over financial allegations before the incident happened. The corpse has not been released to me. It is still with them for autopsy. They talked to me about it saying I should wait until the investigations are finished. I voluntarily agreed.”
He explained that there has not been any emissary or show of empathy from the state government apart from invitations to appear before various committees.
“I am at the Palace on the invitation of the Federal Government committee. This is the fourth one I am attending. I learnt they set up five committees,” he said.
Also speaking, Lawal Mohammed said, “All I know is that I went to the hospital, they gave me the body of my son, Suleiman Lawal. I carried it to my house and buried it. What I want them to do is justice, our children are already gone and buried but we seek justice.”
Similarly, Abubakar Bihari, who lost his 18-year-old son, Abdullahi Abubakar, called on government to do the needful because of the gravity of the issue.
“They said we should keep quiet, we will not keep quiet. It is good that the federal government set up a committee to interview us. As they ask us what happened, we are telling them what we know. What we want from government is justice. What Civil Defence did is against the law,” he said.
In another account, Tanimu Garba said his son Sani was not a miner but a student of Islamiya school sent on errand to buy food for his master, Mallam Hassan, from where he was arrested by NSCDC.
“My son was not among the illegal miners. He was learning Islamiya from Mallam Hassan. He was sent to buy food, that was where the boy was arrested. I want justice. Up till now we do not know what government is doing. No one has explained anything to us,” he said.
A 50-year-old Abdullahi Usman, father of Usman Abdullahi, said he was not aware of any autopsy test on the body of his late son.
“When they brought the corpse from the hospital, it had started to decay. It had started smelling, we had to quickly bury it,” he said, adding that government did not visit for condolences.
