The family of 24-year-old tailor Abubakar Adam Abdullahi is demanding justice after accusing police of killing him during nationwide protests against the rising cost of living in Kaduna, Nigeria.
Local police deny any involvement in his death, and a spokesperson for the Kaduna state governor claims there have been no reported fatalities from the protests. However, this assertion is challenged by Amnesty International, which states that three people have been killed in Kaduna alone.
Speaking on behalf of the family, Abubakar’s brother Ismail told the BBC that the tailor was shot in the chest by police on Thursday and later died at Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital. “All we want is justice for our brother,” Ismail stated.
In the five days since the protests began across Nigeria, police report that at least seven people have died, 700 have been arrested, and elite officers have detained one of the protest leaders.
Despite warnings from President Bola Tinubu, thousands of Nigerians have participated in the demonstrations, driven by concerns over the escalating cost of living and inspired by the successes of young Kenyans whose rallies achieved key government concessions.
Abubakar was among the protesters. As the youngest of 14 children, he lived with his parents in Kaduna and had big ambitions for his career, hoping to start a family of his own. However, rising costs pushed that future further away, prompting him to join the protests. “As a tailor, the price of materials he used had skyrocketed—food too—and he also had to pay higher rent. Everyone is affected by this economic crisis,” Ismail explained.
Video footage taken at the time of Abubakar’s death appears to show him with a group of young men passionately confronting police before attempting to flee as if being chased.
According to Ismail, who spoke to witnesses, they were near the office of Kaduna Governor Uba Sani when Abubakar told his friends he was tired and wanted to go home. Moments later, witnesses claim, police opened fire on the protesters.
The footage then shows Abubakar falling to the ground, with his friends heard shouting “officer, stop” and “they shot him” in Hausa.
“It was shocking when we got a call to come to the hospital after he was shot because we know he wasn’t violent,” Ismail tells the BBC.
He cannot comprehend how this could happen to the kind, caring and hard-working brother he knew.
“We later saw videos of him sitting or talking to friends during the protest which also proved he wasn’t misbehaving,” he adds.
Kaduna state governor spokesman Mohammed Lawal Shehu says the reason why they have not acknowledged any death from the protest is because they are relying on the police – who say they were no deaths.
“According to the police there wasn’t any death from the protests and we rely on them for information.”
Amnesty International is calling for an investigation into the deaths of 23 protesters it says have been killed across the country, including three in Kaduna.
Ismail says his family will not rest until they get answers about his brother’s death.
“He was in high spirits when he went out with his friends to the protest. He was concerned by the state of things in the country.”
