A development expert and member of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), Dr Taofiq Raimi, has said the government has a responsibility to protect people in its custody, following the deaths of 37 miners in Niger State.
“It is the responsibility of government, as entrenched in our Constitution, to protect lives and property of Nigerians wherever they may be, particularly those that are under their custody. In fact, all of us are under the leadership or governance of the country, so government has responsibility over us.”
Following the deaths of the miners, Raimi said the incident was regrettable, stressing that even people under investigation or prosecution for alleged illegal mining must have their lives protected.
“What happened is regrettable, and I commiserate with the families of the deceased. While it is illegal mining, which we condemn, we should also ensure that even while people are under investigation or prosecution, their life is protected. It’s not a decent death.”
Raimi also raised concerns about the state of detention facilities across the country, saying that although renovations and maintenance are ongoing, more work is still needed.
“What is the state of our detention facilities across the country? While the current government is doing quite a lot through the Ministry of Interior—a lot of renovation, maintenance, and all that are going on across prisons and detention facilities—there’s still more work to do,” he said.
Stressing the need to curb illegal mining, Raimi said there must be enforcement, but added that enforcement must not lead to death, while people should have easy ways of obtaining licences to conduct proper mining business in Nigeria.
“First, there must be enforcement, which I believe was what this particular case attempted to do in the first place. But enforcement must not lead to death.
“Second, we must have a situation whereby people can have easy ways of having licenses to conduct proper mining business in Nigeria.”
He also challenged state governors to do things that would provide employment opportunities for the people, saying many would not be doing illegal things if their welfare and cost of living were better.
“We must also improve, especially at the state level, empowering our people to have normal access to good quality lives. There are many people that wouldn’t be doing illegal things if the situation with them in terms of their welfare and cost of living was better.
“That is why I am challenging most of our state governors to do things that will provide employment opportunities for our people. Our President is not happy that some of these things are happening, and I believe that both the ministry at the state level and at the federal need to look at ways to prevent a recurrence.”
Speaking on the ongoing police investigation into the matter, Raimi said Nigerians expect the truth about what happened to emerge, adding that those found culpable must be brought to book and the outcome should lead to reforms to prevent a recurrence.
“As of now, the President and the government have done the right thing, which is to call for an investigation. We expect truth to come out of exactly what happened. We heard that it’s been speculated that there could have been an outbreak of certain diseases; we don’t want to conclude, let investigation reveal.
“After the investigation, the expectation of Nigerians, including all of us, is: We have to bring those who are culpable to book. It must lead us to some reforms—a change of things that can always lead to this.
“This will be the expectation of Nigerians so that in the near future we will not continue to have a recurrence of this.”
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