The family of a 24-year-old civil engineer, Abdulsamad Jamiu, has accused soldiers attached to the Presidential Brigade of Guards of shooting him dead inside his bedroom in the Kubwa area of Abuja.
PrimeTimes Nigeria reports that the incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, April 26, 2026, while the soldiers were said to be responding to a robbery alert.
The military has allegedly described the incident as a case of “mistaken identity,” but the family insisted there was no robbery or exchange of gunfire in the area.
Jamiu, popularly known as Kesh, was a National Youth Service Corps member (NYSC) expected to complete his service in May. He graduated with a second-class upper degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Minna.
According to his family, he had also planned to join the Nigerian Army through the Direct Short Service Commission.
His foster father, Engr. MomohSani Jimoh, in an interview with Vanguard said he was in Okene, Kogi State, for the burial rites of his mother when he received a distress call from his daughter.
Jimoh said, “At 2:04 a.m., my daughter called me. She said, ‘Daddy, daddy, the worst has happened.’ I said what happened? She said they have killed Samad. That was what she said, and the phone went off.”
He said he abandoned the prayers for his late mother and immediately returned to Abuja. Jimoh alleged that the soldiers entered the compound through a section of the fence after the family gate had been locked.
“Our barbed wire was never like that. Who passed through there? The military. That was where they entered, because the gate was locked,” he said.
He added, “The only gunshot that the vigilance team confirmed they heard was the only gunshot in my house. There was nothing of such in the area, not even close to me, not even in the entire community.”
Sister Alleges Intimidation
The deceased’s sister, Farida Jimoh, said she was asleep upstairs when a gunshot woke her. She said she came out of the room and met three men in military uniforms in the corridor.
“They quickly flashed their flashlight in my eye,” she said. “I asked who is here. They said I should calm down, my attention is needed.”
Farida alleged that the soldiers dragged her outside and showed her a part of the fence where the barbed wire had been bent, claiming they had pursued an armed robber into the compound.
She said when she later entered her brother’s room, she found him dead.
“I ran outside and started screaming out of fear and shock. One of the soldiers said I should shut up. He said why am I shouting, it’s very early, do I want the neighbours to wake up,” she said.
Farida also alleged that when she tried to call her father, one of the soldiers seized her phone.
She further stated, “He said I should not call anybody. I was still begging them, pleading with them, my dad has travelled, let me call him, before they gave me back my phone.”
Family Rejects Robbery Claim
Jimoh said he later spoke with one of the soldiers on Farida’s phone, adding that the soldier admitted that the shooting was a mistake.
“He said, ‘Oga, don’t worry, it was a mistake. It has happened. Calm down.’ This is how he put it,” Jimoh said.
The family also alleged that after Jamiu’s body was removed, soldiers directed members of the local vigilance team to clean the room.
Jimoh said the information emerged after some journalists who visited the scene spoke with the vigilance team members in Hausa.
He said, “Since they could not speak English, one of the interviewers that came yesterday was talking to them in a language they understood very well, which is Hausa, and that was how they expatiated on what actually happened.”
Farida further alleged that the soldiers locked her out of the house, handed the keys to members of the vigilance team and later called in 10 other soldiers.
“They came on bikes and stood there. They were snapping of themselves,” she said.
Military Delegation Visits Family
Jimoh said military delegations had visited the family since the incident. According to him, one Colonel S. Buhari, representing the Chief of Defence Staff, led one of the visits.
He said he demanded the retraction of a military statement which allegedly described the incident as a crossfire during a robbery operation.
“I told them that post is going around and we want it removed or countered because that does not really represent what happened in this area at all. There was no exchange of gunshots from any robbers,” he said.
Jimoh said the delegation assured the family that the matter would be investigated.
“They said they are not going to hide this, that this time around they are going to do things that will serve as a deterrent to others,” he added.
A police statement was taken from family members and a neighbour, while the Divisional Police Officer in the area said the military had called officers to remove the body to Kubwa hospital before he arrived at the scene.