Nigeria prison deaths: Inside the cell where 33 inmates lost their lives

Usman Muhammad pauses by the entrance to a tiny Nigerian prison cell and leans his forehead against the wall unable to speak.

The day before he had been trapped inside the stifling room, measuring roughly 6m (19.7ft) by 3m (9.8ft), with more than 50 other prisoners.

Thirty-three of his cellmates died in the cramped conditions in the prison in Minna, the capital of Nigeria's Niger state - and four died later in hospital.

The mass deaths caused an outcry and sparked protests , including attacks on public buildings, as relatives and locals demanded answers.

Federal officials had initially blamed the deaths on a diphtheria outbreak but exactly what happened is now the subject of an investigation.

"I have never felt heat like that in my life. When we touched each other's bodies, it felt like fire burning," Muhammad tells the BBC once he is able to gather his thoughts.

When he was locked inside, there was standing room only amid humidity levels of more than 90%, which in some circumstances can be dangerous to human health as it prevents the natural cooling mechanism of sweat drying on the skin.

The temperature outside was above 25C and the only ventilation came from a small, high-up window.

"One of us fainted and we started knocking at the [cell] door. When [a guard] came we asked him for water. He looked at the guy that fainted and closed the door. That's how they started dying one after the other," Muhammad says.

Like the others who had been detained, the young man, in his 20s, is an artisanal miner, eking out a living searching for precious metals at mine sites.

The federal government has tried to crack down on this alleged illegal activity as it says it costs the country revenue, damages the environment and can be linked to wider criminal activity.

Officers from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) had arrested a large group of miners near Minna last Tuesday and Wednesday.

The prisoners were held at its detention centre in the city, but the NSCDC has not shared either the names or the number of those it was holding.

As the hours inside the cell wore on, the heat and dehydration became unbearable and Muhammad says some of the detainees began drinking their own urine and collecting sweat from their bodies to try to stay alive.

He describes seeing people in distress and struggling to breathe.

"People were calling for help, some were already very weak."

But no-one came to help, he and others allege.

"While in the cell, we were shouting and telling them that people were dying," another survivor Adamu Isah told the Reuters news agency.

"We tried to break down the door when they refused to open it… At one point, a security officer came to the door.

"We were shouting and telling him that people were dying, but he said it wasn't his problem if people died."

Finally, on Thursday, the cell door was opened and the guards saw the dead bodies.

The NSCDC has not directly responded to the accusations of neglect and maltreatment but has said that 24 of its personnel are now in custody in connection with the deaths, including its suspended Niger state commandant Suberu Aniviye.

"The people who were killed are not flies. How can this go unlooked? We will get to the bottom of this," Niger state Governor Umaru Bago told the BBC.

As the organisation involved is a federal body rather than a force under his jurisdiction, such as the police, the governor is unable to exert direct influence but he welcomes the investigation that has been ordered by the government in capital, Abuja.

A 10-member committee has now been set-up to determine exactly what happened.

It has two weeks to establish the causes of the deaths and identify who was responsible and can recommend legal action against anyone found culpable.

No officer, regardless of rank, would be protected and any attempt to obstruct the investigation would be taken seriously, Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said.

As he leaves the cell after talking to the BBC, Muhammad says he hopes that by speaking out he can help find justice and bring some closure to this traumatic event.

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