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.
These observations, coupled with family accounts and the military’s immediate investigation at the residence, contradict the Nigerian Army’s claim that the deceased was killed during a crossfire between soldiers and armed robbers. Residents of the area told PREMIUM TIMES that the military had been engaged to provide security to the community. However, there were instances of soldiers brutalising residents while trying to carry out their duties.
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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.
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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.
A dangerous cover-up
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.
‘The lies told by the army’
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.
“They should have handled it professionally,” Mr Jamiu said. “You don’t shoot first without knowing who you are shooting.”
Military investigations
On Monday, military delegates visited the house twice. The initial visit was led by S.O. Buhari, a brigadier general, who came to the family home on a condolence mission.
Mr Jamiu told PREMIUM TIMES that the general assured them that an investigation would be conducted and those responsible would be “brought to book.”
During the second visit, family sources told this newspaper that military operatives brought the soldiers involved in the killing to the house for further investigation and subsequently interrogated the vigilantes who aided them. The military did not allow the family to take pictures of the killer soldiers.
A video shared with our reporter, showed military police officers questioning some local vigilantes.
“During that interrogation, the vigilantes confessed they also buried his (the deceased’s) skull behind our fence,” a family member, Abubakar Shehu, said.
A dream shattered
Abdulsamad, a graduate of civil engineering from the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna, was due to complete his one-year mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme next month. He was a member of Batch A, Stream II of the scheme.
The NYSC management condemned his killing and condoled with his family in what it described as a “military operation” around his residence.
Family sources said the deceased wanted to become a military officer after completing his service.
“He wanted to deploy for Direct Short Service Commissions (DSSC) after completing his NYSC service,” the deceased’s father said, lamenting that the dream had been cut short.
He added that the general who visited the family promised that one of his sons would be considered for that opportunity.
A family’s quest for justice
The father said the family’s demand remains straightforward: “justice for my son.”
During that visit, the family insisted that the false narratives circulated by the military must first be corrected.
“The story being circulated is not the truth,” Mr Jamiu said. “We told the army that they should either retract it or issue the true version of the event.”
As of the time of this publication, that statement was still available on the social media handles of the Nigerian Army. It had garnered more than 3,000 likes and 1,000 comments.
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