On September 15 and 16, 2026, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) arrested scores of people suspected of illegal mining during an enforcement operation in the local communities of M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto Village in Niger State. The NSCDC said the operation was conducted on September 15 and 16 and resulted in the arrest of scores of suspected illegal miners. In the early hours of September 17, some of those detained were found dead in NSCDC custody. State authorities subsequently said 37 detainees had died.
The deaths have raised serious questions about what happened between the arrests and the discovery of the bodies. The NSCDC initially claimed the deaths followed a suspected outbreak of disease, but the actual cause of death had not been conclusively established and the bodies were taken to the General Hospital in Minna for medical examination.
The Federal Government has since suspended officers involved and constituted a 10-member independent committee to investigate the arrests, detention conditions, cause and circumstances of the deaths, and possible responsibility, complicity, negligence or misconduct.
The investigation must establish the facts. But whatever ultimately caused these deaths, the incident raises a fundamental question about the limits of state power: can Nigeria effectively fight illegal mining while respecting the rights of those it arrests?
The answer should be yes. In fact, the effectiveness and legitimacy of enforcement depend on it.
Nigeria has a legitimate interest in stopping illegal mining. Mining without the required licenses is unlawful, and the government has a responsibility to protect mineral resources, communities and the public interest.
But suspected illegal miners do not lose their rights when they are arrested. A person accused of an offense remains entitled to humane treatment and protection of life and dignity while in government custody.
Such a situation is where the rule of law becomes more than a constitutional phrase. It means that government officials exercising coercive powers are themselves constrained by law.
For a movement concerned with individual liberty and economic freedom, this distinction is fundamental. Public power must be constrained and predictable, while individuals must be protected by clear rules and secure rights. When government enforcement becomes arbitrary, it does not merely threaten individual rights. It also weakens the institutional environment in which people work, invest and conduct legitimate economic activity.
Nigeria should therefore resist the temptation to equate stronger enforcement with more arrests. The real measure of effective enforcement is whether illegal activity is reduced through lawful, transparent and accountable institutions.
The Niger tragedy should prompt a broader rethink of Nigeria’s approach to illegal mining. Arresting people at mining sites may address the immediate manifestation of the problem, but it does little to explain why illegal mining continues or who ultimately profits from it.
A more appropriate approach would be to trace the entire chain: who owns or controls the mining sites, who finances the operations, who buys the minerals, which operators are licensed, how licenses are obtained and renewed, and which regulatory failures allow unlawful operations to persist. This requires more than periodic raids at mining sites. Mining authorities should maintain and regularly update a publicly accessible digital register that shows valid mining licenses, the locations of licensed operations, the minerals covered by each license, and the identities of the entities legally authorized to operate them.
The government should also strengthen mineral traceability from extraction to sale. Minerals produced from licensed sites should be accompanied by basic documentation identifying their source, the licensed operator and the point of sale. Buyers, processors and exporters should be required to conduct reasonable checks on the origin of minerals they purchase. This would make it more difficult for minerals extracted unlawfully to enter legitimate supply chains while shifting enforcement attention towards financiers, middlemen and commercial beneficiaries rather than concentrating almost exclusively on workers found at mining sites.
Technology can make this system more practical. Geographic information systems, satellite imagery and other monitoring tools can be used to identify mining activity in areas without valid licenses and to compare actual operations with government licensing records. Such information should inform targeted enforcement, allowing authorities to investigate specific sites and actors rather than relying primarily on broad arrests.
At the same time, Nigeria needs to make legitimate participation in the mining sector more accessible. Where people have few economic alternatives and formal opportunities are difficult to access, simply increasing arrests may push more activity underground rather than eliminate it.
One practical response is to simplify and decentralize the process of obtaining mining permits, particularly for artisanal and small-scale miners. Licensing information, application requirements, fees and processing timelines should be made clear and accessible at the local level, while unnecessary administrative barriers should be reduced.
The government can also expand formalization programs that organize artisanal miners into cooperatives or other legally recognized structures. Instead of treating every person working outside the formal system primarily as an enforcement target, authorities can identify miners who are willing to comply, help them understand the applicable requirements and create realistic pathways into the legal mining economy. Where environmental, safety or technical standards must be met, government agencies should provide clear guidance and reasonable transition periods for compliance.
This approach would also improve enforcement. Once legitimate operators are properly identified and documented, enforcement agencies can more easily distinguish between licensed activity and unlawful operations. Government can then concentrate coercive enforcement on operators who deliberately evade the regulatory system, financiers who support unlawful extraction and buyers who knowingly facilitate the trade in illegally sourced minerals.
That is an important lesson in economic freedom. Markets function better when rules are clear, property rights are secure and government enforcement is predictable. People should know what is legal, how to comply and what happens when they do not. Government officials should be subject to the same expectation of accountability.
There is also a need for clearer institutional responsibility. Mining regulators, security agencies and other government bodies involved in enforcement should operate under clearly defined mandates, with written procedures for arrest, detention, transfer and medical care. Officers exercising these powers should receive regular training on the legal limits of enforcement and should be subject to effective disciplinary and judicial oversight when those limits are breached. This would help ensure that accountability does not begin only after a tragedy has occurred.
Most importantly, reform should give people a credible path from informality to legality. If a miner can understand the rules, obtain the necessary authorization at a reasonable cost, operate under predictable conditions and sell minerals through legitimate channels, compliance becomes more realistic. If the government can then reliably identify and sanction those who deliberately operate outside that framework, enforcement becomes more targeted and credible.
The 37 deaths should therefore not end with the suspension of officers or the submission of another investigation report. If the investigation establishes criminal responsibility, those responsible should face prosecution. If it establishes negligence or institutional failure, those failures should be corrected. And if it exposes weaknesses in Nigeria’s mining regulatory system, those weaknesses should be addressed.
The fight against illegal mining is necessary. But the state must not create another illegality in the process.
Nigeria can protect its mineral resources, prosecute unlawful mining and expand legitimate economic opportunities without sacrificing human dignity and due process. That is not a limitation on effective government. It is what an effective government under the rule of law should look like.
Hammed J. Sulaiman is a lawyer, lecturer, media practitioner, researcher and policy advocate. He is the founder of The Peoples’ Mouthpiece Initiative, a civic education and policy organisation focused on rule of law, individual liberty, accountable governance and economic opportunity in Nigeria. He is a member of the Nigerian Bar and writes on law, public policy, governance and economic freedom. He can be reached via sulexmighty@gmail.com.
Image by Paolo Chiabrando via Unsplash.