THE family of Abdulsamad Jamiu, a 24-year-old National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member killed in Dei-Dei, Abuja, has rejected the Nigerian Army’s account of his death, describing it as false and misleading.
The family in a statement reported on Monday, April 27, demanded an independent investigation into the incident.
Jamiu was killed in the early hours of April 25, 2026, at his family residence in Shagari Quarters, Dei-Dei, Abuja.
The ICIR reported that the Guards Brigade of the Nigerian Army on April 26, said its troops were responding to a distress call over an armed robbery attack in the area when they came under gunfire from fleeing robbers, leading to a “brief but intense exchange.”
According to the Army, Jamiu was caught in the crossfire during the operation.
However, the deceased’s family rebutted the military’s version of the incident, saying it was inconsistent with what transpired.
The family alleged that at about 2:00 a.m., military personnel entered its residence by scaling the fence rather than using the gate and proceeded into the house without prior notice.
It said Jamiu was inside his room while his sister was elsewhere in the house, and their parents were away in Okene attending a burial ceremony.
According to the statement, soldiers fired a shot through the closed door of Jamiu’s room, hitting him in the head and killing him instantly.
“The bullet trajectory — from the door of Abdulsamad’s room to the interior wall — establishes, without ambiguity, that the fatal shot was fired by military personnel who were standing on the exterior side of a closed door, directly into the room where Abdulsamad Jamiu was located. This is not consistent with a firefight,” the family said.
It argued that this contradicted the Army’s claim of an exchange of gunfire with armed robbers.
“This is not consistent with a pursuit scenario. This is consistent with military personnel discharging a lethal weapon through a closed door at a person they could not see and who posed no identified, verified, or established threat,” the statement added.
The family further claimed that no armed robbery was reported in the community that night and that members of the local vigilante group confirmed there was no such incident.
It also said residents heard only one gunshot, the shot that killed Jamiu, and no evidence of a gun battle, such as multiple gunshots, spent cartridges, or other signs of an exchange of fire, was found.
The family alleged that after the shooting, soldiers instructed Jamiu’s sister to go outside and “calm down,” while community vigilante members who arrived at the scene were allegedly told by soldiers to mop up and flush the blood.
It said the deceased’s body was later taken to Kubwa General Hospital by the police, who arrived after the incident.
The family also claimed that when confronted, the soldiers admitted that the killing was a mistake and acknowledged they had shot an innocent person.
It posited that the admission was made in the presence of the Divisional Police Officer and captured in a written statement.
“The military cannot simultaneously admit in a police-supervised setting that they killed an innocent person by mistake and then publish a public account implying that the deceased was caught in a legitimate security operation gone wrong,” the statement said.
Family demands independent probe
The family further called for an immediate, independent and transparent investigation outside the military’s chain of command.
It demanded the suspension and prosecution of the officers involved, retraction of the Army’s public statement, and a formal public apology.
The family therefore formally demands “the identification, suspension pending investigation, and subsequent prosecution, where warranted, of the military personnel directly responsible for discharging the weapon that killed Abdulsamad Jamiu.
“The retraction of the Nigerian Military’s public statement, which the family has demonstrated to be materially false, and the issuance of a corrected account consistent with the physical evidence and the military’s own prior admissions.”
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M