The national president of the Nigeria Union of Mining Workers (NUMW), Musa Adamu Nasiru, told the inquiry commission that six of the miners who died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were registered members of the union.

The president of the Niger Miners Association, Abdulrazak Yusuf Mohammed, told the same commission that he was informed that 65 people were in detention, that only 17 survived and that forty-eight died in custody. In Niger State, thirty-seven people accused of illegal mining died in NSCDC custody, according to Nigerian authorities.