“Dead men don’t cry,” the driver reportedly replied.
The response, recorded in Samuel Fury Childs Daly’s study of the incident, came from a police driver in Lagos in March 1980. The driver was in charge of a dark blue police Bedford Black Maria, registration number NPF, that had been parked in the yard of St Anna Magistrate’s Court at Tinubu Square for more than three hours. Inside were 68 men. It was the direct sun of the Lagos dry season, and the largely windowless vehicle had only small openings to allow air in.
A military prosecutor had confronted the police officers earlier, objecting to the way the men were being kept. The door was briefly opened, and a few cups of water were passed inside. It was nowhere near enough. When the military prosecutor returned, the men were still crying out. He warned the driver that they were going to die. That was when the driver gave his reply.
Not long afterwards, the noise stopped. The men had not suddenly become calm. Many had fainted.
At about 1:30 pm, the paperwork was finally completed, and the Black Maria left for Ikoyi Prison. The journey was short, and there was no traffic. The vehicle arrived at about 2:05 pm. When the prison officers opened the doors, they found a pile of bodies. Forty-seven men were dead, seventeen were unconscious, and four were still conscious. The survivors were rushed to hospital, where doctors and nurses used intravenous fluids and artificial respiratory support. Some of the victims were treated on the hospital floor because of the number of casualties. Three more men died there, taking the final death toll to 50.
The men had been arrested the previous day during a police raid on Tin Can Island in Lagos. Officers were searching for a suspected car thief after a gun battle, but instead of finding only the man they were looking for, they began arresting young men in the surrounding area. Passers-by, street hawkers and labourers looking for work were among those picked up. A goldsmith was dragged from his shop. Another factory worker was detained at his workplace even though a colleague tried to vouch for him. In all, 100 men were arrested. Thirty-two were released after questioning. The remaining 68 were taken to the police headquarters at Lion Building on Lagos Island. Forty-three were from the Republic of Niger, 15 were Nigerians, and 10 were Ghanaians. Most were poor migrants and labourers who had come to Lagos looking for work.
The night before they went to court, they were kept in a small room at the police headquarters without food or water. The next day, they were accused of wandering and loitering and remanded in custody, ordered to be taken to Ikoyi Prison. The necessary papers were not ready. Only one clerk was processing the documents for all 68 men, and she ran out of blank forms and had to send for more. While the paperwork was being completed, the courtroom became crowded, and the police decided to put the suspects back inside the Black Maria.
Forty-six years later, the same questions are being asked again.
On Thursday, September 17, 2026, 37 suspected illegal miners were reported to have died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State. The deaths followed a two-day NSCDC operation in which at least 150 suspects were arrested. A witness identified as Garba told the Foundation for Investigative Journalism that children under 18, including a seven-year-old, were among the deceased.
The cause of death has yet to be formally established. Survivors have described conditions that have made the case more disturbing. As reported by Pulse, one survivor claimed that people were initially locked inside a small room before more detainees were brought in. He said they complained that it was too small and hot. He added that the security officials sprayed a substance resembling perfume into the room before people began falling. The detainees, he said, pleaded for water but were told that nobody would open the door. Another survivor said they screamed for help and that guards were told people were dying one after another.
This is not the first instance of mass death of this nature in government custody that Nigeria has witnessed. One of them, which happened in Lagos, made headlines 46 years ago. In 1980, under the leadership of late Alhaji Shehu Shagari in the Second Republic, police officers raided Tin Can Island. The tragedy at St Anna Magistrate’s Court caused national outrage. The men who died were not criminals. They were poor migrants and labourers who had come to Lagos looking for work, swept up in a raid and then left in a locked vehicle in the heat until they stopped crying.
According to Pulse.ng.
