My Son Wanted Military Career, But Killed By Soldiers—Father

Grief settled heavily over the quiet compound in Shagari Quarters, Dei Dei, Abuja, where a family now struggles to make sense of a loss that came without warning, without explanation, and, by their account, without justification.

“My golden boy is dead. If he was not safe in his home, where else can he be safe?” These were the repeated words of the mother of late Abdulsamad Jamiu, Mrs. Habiba Abubakar, to THE WHISTLER during a visit.

In the early hours of Saturday, April 25, 2026, bullets fired by soldiers of the Nigerian Army cut through the stillness of the night and ended the life of a 24-year-old who, until that moment, lay asleep in his room.

Jamiu, fondly called the “golden boy” by his family, served as a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in Abuja and had looked forward to completing the programme in May 2026.

His journey, began in Okene, Kogi State, where he was born on September 29, 2001. He later graduated from the Federal University of Technology, Minna in 2025 with a Second Class Upper degree in Civil Engineering.

Inside the family home, his absence now echoes through carefully arranged spaces that once reflected routine, warmth, and shared aspirations.

THE WHISTLER observed that the compound opens into a short walkway leading to a white duplex with a balcony lined by a silver railing. The double doors open into a main sitting room, which connects to a dining area and kitchen.

A passage to the right leads to three rooms—Jamiu’s room sits slightly apart on the left. Upstairs, a staircase leads to a mini parlour, more rooms, and a balcony converted into a modest fashion workspace, which the jamiu had shared with his mother.

It was in this home that violence arrived.

Family members said Jamiu had planned to enrol in the Army short service after completing his NYSC. That ambition ended abruptly when soldiers, from the Guards Brigade, made their way into the compound around 2:00 a.m. and opened fire during what the Army later described as a “crossfire between the troops and armed robbers in the estate.”

His mother rejects that account. “Even if there was a robbery incident, which never occurred, what was the army doing inside my house at 2:00 am. They jumped my fence, went through the emergency door at the back because the main entrance was locked, and headed straight to his,” she said.

She continued, her voice breaking under the weight of disbelief, “The army gained illegal access to my home and killed my golden boy. How can a crossfire occur inside my son’s room? You shot him while he was unarmed, wearing shorts. What was his offence? He is just 24.

“Who will ask me what the problem is or what I wanted? Jamiu was, he made me a mother, he is supposed to bury me, but I buried him, because some people believe they can take his life. If my son were not safe in his home, where else could he have sought sanctuary?”

Mourners filled the house, their quiet consolations blending with the low hum of grief. In another corner, the father received visitors, his composure strained by the weight of unfolding realities.

Physical evidence within the home tells a stark story. Jamiu’s bedroom door bears two bullet holes—one just above the doorknob, another closer to the frame. Inside, a bullet mark punctures the wall.

Dried blood stains the ceiling, walls, and a table nearby. No doors were broken. No signs of forced struggle appear beyond the gunfire itself.

Outside, part of the barbed wire fencing on one side of the compound had collapsed, while the adjoining fence—shared with a neighbour—remained intact.

“I wasn’t in Abuja when my son was killed,” Engr. Sani Jimoh, Jamiu’s father, told THE WHISTLER.

He had travelled to Okene with his wife following the death of his own mother just two days earlier. They left their children at home, trusting their eldest son to look after the family.

“I’m his father. And this is my residence. It’s not a rented apartment. So we built this house, and this is where we live.

“On that day, I was away with my wife. I lost my mom. I had to travel together with my wife. Then we believed Samad was old enough to take care of his siblings at home. And we left them at home to travel and went to Okene for the burial.”

What followed came through a frantic phone call. “That very day this happened was supposed to be the three-day prayer for my late mom. And a call came in from my daughter Farida. She said, ” Daddy, daddy, daddy, the worst has happened.

“I said, what happened? She couldn’t control herself. She ended the call. Then I called her back and said, please calm down and talk to me since you called.”

“So she said, they have killed Samad. I said, who? She said, soldier.”

At first, he refused to believe it. He continues, “I said, okay, I will try to call the neighbour now. I don’t believe he is dead. I will try to call the neighbour, at least they will rush him to the hospital. But she repeated, ” Daddy, I said he is dead. They blew his head off.”

Still searching for clarity, he spoke directly with one of the soldiers after asking his daughter whether she still had company.

“She handed over the phone to one of the soldiers. I said, please can you tell me what happened? He said, they were pursuing armed robbers, suddenly they didn’t see the person they were again.”

“When they looked around, they saw a barbed wire that dropped down inside my compound and suspected the robbers had jumped through that fence. So, they also jumped through the fence” Jimoh noted

But the explanation only deepened the father’s questions. “I then asked him, how did you get into my house? This soldier said, Oga, don’t bother about it, calm down. I said, ” You killed my son, and you’re asking me to calm down? He said, ” Calm down.

“Then they saw a door and they were trying to open that door, but somebody was there forcing the door not to open… And I asked him, then the next thing you could do was to shoot him in the head.”

The soldier’s response remained unchanged, “Oga, calm down, calm down” Jimoh told THE WHISTLER.

Jimoh insisted the soldiers stay until the neighbours arrived, which they did, but moments later reality set in.

“I asked my neighbour to please check my son, if he could rush him to the hospital. Then my neighbour confirmed to me that my son is dead.”

Unable to break the news to his hypertensive wife, he told her only that their son had been arrested. They began the journey back to Abuja in the early hours of the morning.

Between 3:00a.m. and 7:15 a.m., events continued to unfold at the house.

THE WHISTLER gathered that the soldiers instructed Jamiu’s siblings to step outside, called for reinforcement, and directed vigilantes to clean the scene.

Farida, Jamiu’s sister, recalled the moment she encountered the soldiers to THE WHISTLER.

“The gunshot woke me up, coming down to the sitting room. Torchlights were flashed to me, and immediately I started screaming please do not kill me, as I didn’t know who they were, and one of the soldiers shouted, stop shouting, it is too early. Who are you? He asked, and I responded, ‘This is my father’s house.’

“Then I asked, please, where is my brother, at first they stopped me, but I forced my way through, and that was how I saw my brother on the floor, in a pool of his blood and his brains scattered on the ground. Immediately, I called my dad.”

She described what followed, “After the neighbour had confirmed that my brother was dead to my dad. The soldiers told me to go outside with my siblings. Minutes later, the vigilantes arrived, the soldiers called for reinforcement, and I counted an additional ten soldiers. and some began to take pictures of themselves and our house.”

Faridah noted that the police arrived, took the body, and left while the soldiers instructed the vigilantes to clean his blood. She added that the soldiers locked the house after the cleanup, handed the keys to the vigilantes and instructed the gate to remain locked pending the parents’ return.

She added, “Our neighbours took us in because of the trauma, till my parents arrived from Kogi.”

Efforts by THE WHISTLER to speak with the neighbour proved unsuccessful, as a visit to the residence did not yield any response, and calls made were not answered as of the time of filing this report.

When Jimoh finally arrived, the official explanation he encountered did little to ease his doubts.

He said, “When I came, I called my neighbour and asked what had happened. They said the police had taken the body to Kubwa General Hospital.

“We went to the police station. I met with the DPO. He consoled me and described it as a big mistake. He repeated the same account from the soldier that they were chasing a suspect, who entered through the fence, and forced their way into the house.

“I asked the DPO: must you shoot without seeing the person? Why not call for backup and surround the house? I told them I wanted to bury my son according to Islamic rites. I wrote my statement and requested the release of the body. I also demanded to see the soldiers involved.”

The DPO in charge of the B-Division Dei-Dei is CSP Yahaya Doma.

He continued, “I went to Kubwa General Hospital, completed the paperwork, and took my son’s body for burial. He was buried that Saturday.”

Tensions escalated the following day as youths in the community protested, demanding justice. Soldiers who arrived at the scene met resistance and required police intervention to calm the situation.

Jimoh revealed that the Army paid them a visit on Sunday afternoon, but was stopped by the angry youth who were protesting.

“That Sunday, youths in the community protested, demanding justice. Some soldiers, accompanied by their leader, Captain Esemota Osa, came around 3:00 pm but were blocked by protesters. The police intervened and calmed the situation.

“The army had earlier told me it was a mistake. But on Sunday, they released a statement claiming it was an armed robbery.

“When I saw that statement, I was upset. Instead of calming the family, it added to our pain.

“Ose called me the morning of Monday, April 27, 2026, to inform me of their plan to visit my house. The army returned with senior officers, including Colonel S.O. Buhari, representing the Chief of Army Staff. They promised a thorough investigation and justice.

“My brother, who is also in the army, challenged them saying trained soldiers do not shoot without identifying a target. My wife said Samad planned to join the army after NYSC. That dream is now gone, but the colonel told her that by the grace of God, she still has other sons and that dream would be actualised.”

Jimoh told THE WHISTLER that the army assured the culprits would be held accountable, the post would be brought down on all Army platforms and that the family would be involved in the investigation.

“Investigators later interviewed witnesses, including vigilantes, who confirmed there was no robbery — only the gunshot from our house, which was how I discovered my son’s brain was buried beside my house.”

“I want justice. Real justice not just what they tell us. My son is brilliant, he has prospects and ambitions, you could tell from his education. We want those responsible to be punished according to the military law. We want to know what prompted this. Were they sent, who sent them? If not, why did they do it? I believe it was deliberate, not a mistake.”

Accounts from local vigilantes appear to contradict the Army’s initial narrative.

Ibrahim Abubakar, who has patrolled the area for over seven years, said no robbery had been reported that night.

Abubakar noted that soldiers carry out patrols around the estate, so nothing seemed unusual the night of the incidents.

“At the time we heard the gunshot, we were on patrol. The three of us on duty did not know exactly where the sound came from.

“There has been no previous incident of robbery in this area. There was no robbery; we only heard gunshots.”

He also confirmed that it was a neighbour’s call that led them to the house before the soldiers instructed the cleaning of the crime scene.

“It was a neighbour who called us and informed us that he heard a gunshot in the area, which prompted us to come and check. When we arrived, we met soldiers. Otherwise, we would have contacted the police directly. We also met a lady who lives in the house, and she was being consoled.

“While we were consoling her, the soldiers noticed that we were vigilantes. They instructed us to position ourselves on both sides of the street and told us that the police were on their way, so we should direct them to the house.

“We were initially asked to remain outside. Even the soldiers were outside at that point. After the police arrived and removed the dead body, the soldiers asked us to clean the blood stains inside the house. 

“While doing so, we also packed parts of the deceased’s brain into a bucket and took it outside to bury it beside the house”.

When THE WHISTLER inquired further on the recurrence of armed robbery or other related criminal activities within the estate, Abubakar responded, saying, “ There has been no previous incident of robbery in this area, as we regularly patrol the neighbourhood. There was no robbery; we only heard gunshots.”

Residents described a broader pattern of alleged misconduct.

One resident, speaking anonymously, recounted how soldiers had previously assaulted a vigilante member after profiling him as a suspect. Others claimed young men in the neighbourhood frequently bore the brunt of such encounters.

“This is not the first time soldiers have assaulted young men in this neighbourhood, sadly, a life was lost.”

Army Speaks

While new developments regarding Jamiu’s death have countered the earlier statement by the Army, sources familiar with the case offered a different perspective from the official statement.

One senior officer, speaking anonymously, described the incident as a failure of discipline.

“When you give power to unfit personnel, incidents such as this are what you get. Army personnel are trained with the utmost professionalism, which prohibits the use of lethal force against unarmed civilians, except in situations such as a reprisal attack.”

“The personnel involved can’t defend their actions. As a soldier, what are you doing jumping the fence and shooting an unarmed civilian?”

The officer further told THE WHISTLER that the three personnel have been arrested, and are currently in the guard room pending the conclusion of the investigation.

“The standard procedure is to detain the personnel involved, pending the conclusion of the investigation, and if found guilty they would all be court-martialled.” the officer disclosed.

However, THE WHISTLER contacted the Nigerian Army’s Acting Director of Public Relations, Lt. Col Appolonia Anele, following its findings, but messages sent on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at about 9:48 p.m. via WhatsApp received no response.

A follow-up call made on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, also went unanswered.

THE WHISTLER sent another reminder later that same day at about 8:07 a.m., but as of the time of filing this report, no response had been received.

Police Reacts

Meanwhile, further findings by THE WHISTLER revealed that police authorities in the B-Division, Dei-Dei have transferred the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

THE WHISTLER subsequently contacted the Police Command Public Relations Officer, SP Josephine Adeh, who noted that all inquiries regarding the case should be directed to the Nigerian Army.

“Contact the military not me” she said, adding that, “the military stated in regards to this case. The police are not involved, please redirect all inquiries to the military.”