An Assistant Director within the Federal Ministry of Forged Minerals Construction, Hajiya Halima Omolara Ibrahim, has accused Mining Marshal operatives of assaulting and detaining her whilst acting her authentic tasks at a mining web page in Kwakuti, Paikoro Native Executive Space of Niger State.
Ibrahim made the allegation whilst attesting earlier than the Justice Mohammed Mohammed Judicial Fee of Inquiry investigating the deaths of 37 suspected unlawful miners within the custody of the Nigeria Safety and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.
She advised the fee that the incident befell on April 17, 2026, when operatives allegedly led by means of SC Jibrin Mohammed raided the web page and arrested her along artisanal miners.
In line with her, the operatives unnoticed her authentic identity card and refused to hear her explanations in spite of figuring out herself as a ministry authentic.
She alleged that she used to be overwhelmed, strangled, dragged at the flooring and humiliated earlier than being taken to the Mining Marshal’s headquarters in Minna, the place she used to be detained from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
“I used to be overwhelmed, molested, humiliated, strangulated and overwhelmed to a state of pulp and dragged at the flooring earlier than they bundled me into their ready van,” she advised the fee.
She stated she sustained facial bruises and her garments had been torn all over the alleged attack.
Ibrahim stated her duties integrated registering artisanal miners, supervising their actions and making sure compliance with mining rules. She disclosed that her administrative center had registered about 400 artisanal miners to function along authorized miners within the state.
She accused the Mining Marshal of undertaking enforcement operations with out involving her administrative center, in spite of an present running courting between the ministry’s enforcement unit and safety operatives.
She additionally alleged that Mining Marshal operatives extorted between N6 million and N7 million from miners and took their mined gold.
The witness reportedly submitted documentary proof, which the fee admitted as reveals.
At the deaths of the 37 suspected miners, Ibrahim stated her administrative center used to be ignorant of the operation that reportedly ended in their deaths between September 16 and 17, 2026.
She alleged that different miners had died all over safety operations in Niger State with out attracting identical public consideration, naming Korokpa and Garafini in Borgu Native Executive Space and Kwakuti in Paikoro Native Executive Space as places the place such deaths allegedly befell all over NSCDC operations.
In line with her, the deaths of the 37 miners attracted consideration as a result of they befell within the company’s custody.
The fee is investigating the instances surrounding the deaths and different allegations coming up from mining enforcement operations within the state.