The bullet that killed a 24-year-old corps member, Abdulsamad Jamiu, in Abuja on 25 April, pierced through the door to his room, struck his skull, and left visible damage on the wall behind him.
The bullet that killed a 24-year-old corps member, Abdulsamad Jamiu, in Abuja on 25 April, pierced through the door to his room, struck his skull, and left visible damage on the wall behind him. Traces of bloodstains were still evident at the scene hours later.
A resident, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, recalled an incident where the soldiers rounded up motorcyclists and beat them up. “That happened about two months ago,” he said. “One of the okada guys sustained injuries and we heard that he is yet to recover.”
While the motorcyclists only sustained injuries, Abdulsamad paid with his life.
What his family members describe as a targeted killing unfolded when soldiers forced their way into their one-storey building in Shagari Quarters, Dei-Dei, Abuja, and proceeded straight to the deceased’s room, tucked away in a far corner of the house, downstairs.
The deceased’s younger sister, Faridah, was the only person at home with him. Their parents had travelled to Okene, Kogi State, to bury their paternal grandmother.
Faridah said she was sleeping upstairs when a loud noise jolted her awake around 2 a.m. on Saturday. Concerned, she stepped out of her room and came downstairs, where she encountered three men in military uniform.
“They flashed their torchlights in my eyes,” she told PREMIUM TIMES, in the deceased’s room, adding that she immediately knelt and pleaded with them not to harm her. The men, she said, told her to stay calm and asked who she was. Faridah said she identified herself as a resident of the house.
As she moved further, she said she perceived the smell of gunpowder and repeatedly asked about her brother’s whereabouts. Instead of answering directly, Faridah said the soldiers dragged her outside and pointed to a broken barbed wire, appearing to suggest a break-in.
She said the soldiers told her that they were chasing a thief and had lost sight of the suspect upon arriving at that area.
But each time she tried to enter her brother’s room, she said she was restrained and pushed back.
“I kept asking, ‘Where is my brother?’ but they wouldn’t let me go in,” she said.
When she eventually forced her way inside, she found her brother lying lifeless. He had been shot in the head and some parts of his brain were pulled out through his skull.
When Faridah tried to raise the alarm, the soldiers forced her to keep quiet.
“I ran out screaming, but one of the soldiers told me to shut up and asked why I was shouting,” she narrated. “I told him I had never seen anything like that before—that I was in shock.”
Faridah explained that she attempted to call her father, but one of the soldiers seized her phone. After pleading with the soldiers, her phone was handed to her and she reached her father who alerted neighbours and the police.
According to her, the police arrived about 30 minutes to an hour later and took the body away.
Faridah recounted that the soldiers instructed local vigilantes to clean the bloodstains inside her brother’s room. She said the vigilantes used cleansing items from the kitchen to wipe the scene.
She added that the soldiers locked the compound and handed the key to the vigilantes, instructing them not to release it to anyone.
Hours after the incident, the Nigerian Army issued a statement on Facebook, claiming that troops of the Guard Brigade Quick Response Group, had responded to a robbery distress call. The army said the deceased was caught in crossfire during a gun battle between soldiers and the armed robbers.
But the family has described this narrative as a lie. The deceased’s father, Sani Jamiu, questioned how armed personnel could scale the fence, enter his home, proceed straight to his son’s room, and shoot him without verification.
“How did you jump through my fence, enter my house, go straight to my son’s room and shoot him?” Mr Jamiu asked.
“What did he do? Who sent them?”
According to him, the only response he received from the soldiers was a repeated call for calm.
“The only thing they told me was, ‘Oga, calm down’,” he said.
He said he finds it difficult to accept the explanation that the killing was a mistake, arguing that the sequence of actions suggests intent rather than accident.
The father added that he had reported his suspicions to the police, maintaining that he believed the soldiers may have been acting on prior knowledge, external instruction, or reckless impulse.
“I cannot understand how a soldier enters a house, goes to a particular room and shoots someone, then says it was a mistake,” he said.
Mr Jamiu said the soldiers should have surrounded the building and arrested him if they were suspicious of anything.
He also cited remarks made by a family member he described as a former soldier of 16 years’ service, who is now a lawyer. He said the relative questioned the conduct of the operation, arguing that even in a legitimate security response, standard procedures—such as cordoning off the building and attempting an arrest—were not observed.
