Sani Jimoh has stated that military operatives told him the killing of his son, Abdulsamad Jamiu, was a mistake, following an incident involving troops of the Nigerian Army Guards Brigade in Dei-Dei, Abuja.
Jamiu, a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps, was killed on April 25 in Shagari Estate. In an earlier statement, the army said the incident occurred during a response to a distress call about armed robbers.
“Upon arrival, the troops came under gunfire from the fleeing armed robbers, resulting in a brief but intense exchange,” the military said.
However, the family has rejected that account, insisting that “physical evidence disproves an exchange of gunfire.”
Speaking after the incident, Jimoh said he was away in Kogi state for his mother’s funeral when he received a distress call around 2am. According to him, soldiers later explained their version of events.
“They said that they were pursuing a thief, but they couldn’t see the thief, so they went through the back and saw that the barbed wire was altered, and they thought someone had jumped through it inside my compound,” he said.
“I asked how they gained entrance into the main house, and they said that it seemed the door was not locked. And when you gained access into the main house, they were trying to open the door (Samad’s room), and somebody was there trying to block them from opening the door, and what happened now happened.” Jimoh said he questioned how the situation led to a fatal shooting inside a room, adding: “They said that Oga calm down, it was a mistake.”
A delegation from the army later visited the family, while police from the Dei-Dei division reportedly described the incident as an unfortunate error. The family said they were asked to submit a statement before the body could be released. Jamiu’s sister, Jamiu Farida, who witnessed the incident, gave a different account, alleging intimidation by soldiers.
“I pleaded with them that if I get down, they should not harm me,” she said. “They asked me to come outside, and they took me outside to show me a broken barbed wire that was more damaged than it was before. They also showed me a broken window. They asked me whether this window was like that. I said, yes.” She said she expected to be told her brother had escaped, but instead discovered he had been shot.
“I thought they wanted to tell me that my brother escaped. I wanted to go into my brother’s room, but they dragged me, and I struggled with them until I discovered that my brother was dead and part of his brain was beside him on the floor,” she said.
“I was just screaming, and I ran back outside. And one of the soldiers was threatening me and asked me to shut up.” Farida also alleged that vigilantes were called in to clean the scene. “The soldiers called the vigilantes to clean the blood, and they did. They also packed his brain and buried it in the house close by.”
The victim’s mother, Abubakar Habiba, said she was out of town at the time and only learned of the incident after neighbours called.
“I was not around; I travelled on Thursday, hoping to come back on Saturday to meet my son at home. Only for me to receive a call from my neighbour around 2:30,” she said. “She called me to say that she was hearing gunshots and asked if there was no problem, and I told her that I wasn’t around.”
Habiba said her son may have responded to banging on his door before being shot. “I don’t know; maybe he woke up from sleep and was trying to find out who was there, and they shot him,” she said. “They shot the door twice. According to what I saw, they said that after doing that, the soldiers called two vigilantes around the area to come and mop up the blood. They entered my kitchen, took detergent and a bucket, and gave the vigilantes instructions to move the blood.”
A friend of the deceased, Yusuf Enesi, described Jamiu as peaceful and said there had been no prior violence in the estate.
“We had spent Friday night with Samad. We hung out at a centre; he co-managed a game hub,” he said. “He played all manner of games, tennis, chess, and snooker, and I think his last game was a tennis game before we left, and I woke up to the call in the early hours of Saturday that he was shot in his room.”