"Who Did He Offend?" Mother of Slain NYSC Member Recounts Night of Panic and Unanswered Questions

Habiba Abubakar, the mother of Abdulsamad Jamiu, the National Youth Service Corps member killed in Dei-Dei, Abuja, has given a harrowing account of the night she learned her son was dead, describing a sequence of panic, withheld information, and mounting dread.

Speaking to TheCable on Monday, Abubakar said she had traveled with her husband to attend a funeral and was expecting to return home to meet her son when a neighbor's call changed everything.

"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 next neighbour around 2:30. 'I said hello. Hope there is no problem?' She said she's hearing gunshots. Fear gripped me," she recounted.

She said her attempts to reach her children went nowhere. Her daughter's line was busy. Her first son's phone was switched off.

When she eventually reached her husband, she said he initially withheld the truth.

"Initially, he didn't want to tell me the actual truth. He said, 'Soldier carried Abdulsamad.' I said, soldier, Abdulsamad? How, for what? He said, no, they want to go and interrogate him," she said.

Abubakar added that when she asked for her phone, family members told her they could not find it. She said it had been taken from her during the chaos.

"That was when I knew that my son was not alive again," she said.

She recounted repeatedly asking her daughter Farida for answers, only to be told to stay calm out of concern for her health.

"I'm getting to Abuja, only for me to discover that my son was dead," she said.

Abubakar went on to dispute the military's account of how her son died. She claimed that soldiers entered the family compound through the back, scaling the fence rather than using the gate, and went directly to her son's room.

"They shot him through the door. They shot the door two times," she claimed.

She also alleged that soldiers directed local vigilantes to clean the scene afterward, reportedly using supplies taken from her own kitchen.

"They entered my kitchen, took Klin, from there, took a bucket and gave the vigilante to mop the blood. What happened? Why would they do that?" she queried.

Visibly distressed, Abubakar maintained that her son was simply inside his room when he was shot.

"Who did he offend? I want to know. Who did you offend?" she asked repeatedly.

Jamiu, 24, was killed in the early hours of April 25 at his family home in Dei-Dei Shagari Quarters. His parents were away at the time. His sister was reportedly home.

The Nigerian Army's Headquarters Guards Brigade has maintained that Jamiu was caught in crossfire while soldiers were responding to a distress call about an armed robbery. Brigade spokesperson Olawuyi Odunola said troops came under fire from fleeing suspects, and that Jamiu's death occurred during that confrontation.

The family has flatly rejected this account. In a statement released Monday, they argued that the bullet's trajectory indicated it was fired through a closed door from outside the room, which they said is inconsistent with a crossfire situation. They also noted that witnesses reported hearing only a single gunshot, and that no weapons were recovered at the scene.

The family further alleged that soldiers present at the scene acknowledged the shooting was a mistake in front of a Divisional Police Officer.

Among their demands are a written apology, a retraction of the military's official statement, an independent investigation, and the suspension and prosecution of those responsible.

"The Nigerian Military operates under a constitutional mandate to protect Nigerian citizens. On the night of 25th April 2026, that mandate was catastrophically and fatally violated," the family stated.