Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, Minister of the Interior, inaugurated a 10 member panel in Abuja on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, to investigate the Niger miners’ deaths after President Bola Tinubu ordered a full inquiry into the 37 suspected illegal miners who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.

The 37 detainees died on Thursday, 17 September 2026, while held by the Niger State Command of the NSCDC.

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What caused the deaths has not been established. The government says the committee must find out what happened.

Jonathan Kure, a retired Deputy Director General of the Department of State Services, chairs the panel. Prof Isa Hayatu Chiroma, SAN, a former Director General of the Nigerian Law School, is secretary.

The other members are Hosea Hassan Karma, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police; Prof Olayinka Buhari, professor of histopathology and former Chief Medical Director of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital; a representative of the Minna Emirate Council; and a representative of the Niger State Government.

Also appointed are Alhaji Liman Sulaiman, National Secretary of the Miners Association of Nigeria; Deji Adeyanju, lawyer and human rights activist; Mrs Zainab Suleiman Okino of Blueprint Newspaper; and Dr George Agbakahi, a public affairs analyst.

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo thanked President Bola Tinubu for ordering the inquiry and said the aim was justice for the dead.

He offered condolences to the families and asked the public to remain calm while the committee works.

The panel has two weeks to finish its investigation and submit a report to the minister.

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The brief is to set out the circumstances of the deaths and to give the government findings it can act on. The inauguration does not itself explain the 37 fatalities. It starts the official attempt to do so.