FLORIDA COUPLE ACCUSE FERTILITY CLINIC OF USING STRANGER’S SPERM FOR DAUGHTER’S EMBRYO IN IVF MIX-UP: ‘BETRAYED’.(PHOTO).
Survivors of a Nigerian disaster that saw 37 suspected illegal gold miners die while in the custody of a paramilitary civil defence group recounted their panic, as they struggled to breathe inside the cell.
Nigeria's government suspended a civil defence commander as President Bola Tinubu ordered a "thorough", "urgent and "full and transparent investigation" over Thursday's deaths, AFP reported.
But anger erupted among sympathisers as testimony from survivors suggested the miners may have suffocated in packed cells.
‘Death alarm ignored’
"We were jam-packed in the cell, no ventilation for us to breathe well," Dauda Shehu told journalists at a city hospital.
"All of a sudden we realised that we could not breathe and we were all scampering for where to get fresh air, we even appealed to them several times, banged the cell door but they refused to answer us.
"Several times, we raised alarm that some people are already dying because of suffocation, nobody answered us."
Another survivor, who asked not to be named, said he made it out alive because he was near the cell entrance where he could breathe better.
"We were screaming for help," he said, telling guards that "people are dying one after the other, they did not believe us".
Another survivor told the state governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, at his residence that their cell was overcrowded and they weNiger state is rich in minerals and attracts thousands of artisanal miners, most of them lured by the hope of striking gold.
The scramble for gold reserves dug up in illegal mines in Niger state is fuelling violence by criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, according to officials and experts
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