Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, has urged parents to stop sending their teenage children into artisanal mining and encourage them to remain in school.
Bago made the call on Tuesday when Christian leaders in the state visited him at the Government House in Minna to express condolences over the deaths of 37 people who died while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The governor asked religious leaders to use their sermons to discourage parents from allowing teenagers to engage in mining, stressing that the state government had made basic and secondary education free.
He said parents should take advantage of the free education programme rather than expose their children to the dangers associated with artisanal mining.
Bago also described the deaths as preventable and said his administration would continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Many of those detained during operations against suspected illegal mining were teenagers. The precise cause of the deaths remains under investigation, with authorities having ordered separate inquiries into the incident.
The governor also said the government would not conceal the facts surrounding the tragedy and pledged that the circumstances leading to the deaths would be established.
The Christian delegation, led by Most Rev. Bulus Yohanna, expressed sympathy to the governor and families of the deceased. Yohanna commended Bago for postponing his campaign launch following the tragedy and called for the circumstances surrounding the deaths to be fully established.
