IN the early hours of January 1, as fireworks lit the skies and families across Nigeria ushered in the New Year with hope and prayers, Timothy Daniel, 13, lay lifeless on the ground in Ete community in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
His blood and brains splattered onto the ground, courtesy of a single, cold-blooded bullet to the head from a soldier’s rifle.
Timothy was murdered by a military man whose uniform and gun should never have been a licence to kill.
This is another case of military impunity against an unarmed, young civilian. The military authorities are liable for this incendiary act.
So, Nigeria must end the reign of trigger-happy thugs in uniform.
Timothy’s life was brutally cut short before he could see the light of the New Year’s Day sun.
His crime was courage with a dose of naivety. His punishment was death.
This was no accident. Neither was it an act of self-defence. It was murder, plain and unvarnished, perpetrated by a lecherous outlaw in Army uniform who saw his authority as a licence to harass, assault, and kill.
The facts are as horrifying as they are infuriating. Timothy and his 15-year-old sister had just emerged from a crossover church service, seeking a moment to relieve themselves after hours of worship.
Nearby, a soldier on guard duty at an oil company premises decided to turn predator. He reportedly made unwanted advances at the girl; she rebuffed him firmly. Undeterred by her rejection, this coward slapped her buttocks in a wild display of entitlement.
When Timothy, a brave boy defending his sister’s dignity, approached to confront the assailant, the soldier responded not with words or restraint, but with lethal force: A shot to the head. Timothy dropped dead instantly. A child’s life was extinguished over a bruised ego.
This unrestrained killer deserves nothing less than the maximum penalty under the law—death for murder, as Nigerian jurisprudence demands for such premeditated savagery.
Timothy’s life, protected by the Constitution, was illegally snatched away, leaving an irreplaceable void in his family and society. He was unarmed, innocent, and full of promise.
Yet, in a country where security personnel too often act as judge, jury, and executioner, his death is but the latest stain on a blood-soaked record of impunity.
Timothy Daniel deserves justice, not hollow condolences, not fleeting tears, not social media commentary, but swift, uncompromising accountability that serves as a deterrent in a country plagued by the gross unprofessionalism of its so-called protectors.
Extrajudicial killings have become a bizarre norm in Nigeria, where uniformed men wield their weapons like swords of terror.
Arbitrary arrests, torture, and deaths in custody are rife, turning the guardians of peace into merchants of death.
Unarmed civilians are gunned down for refusing to give bribes. A simple argument prompts the uniformed thug to cock his gun and fire.
Peaceful protesters in Nigeria know they risk tear gas, bruises, arrests and worse for daring to exercise their constitutional rights.
In 2019, a father driving his two children to school in the Nyanya area of the FCT was beaten to death by police for a mere traffic violation.
His wife and children watched in horror as their breadwinner gasped his last breath, another family shattered by state-sanctioned brutality.
This trigger-happy soldier in Ikot Abasi, who should be on the frontlines combating terrorists in the North, must not escape scot-free.
Instead of focusing on national security threats, military personnel are increasingly distracted and dragged into civil disputes, a dangerous absurdity that erodes their professional focus.
Sadly, they turn their guns inward on the very populace they swore to protect.
This demands urgent institutional reform: strip away the veil of impunity, enforce strict rules of engagement, and remind these forces that they exist to serve the people, not lord it over them.
History is littered with such atrocities, each one a damning indictment of systemic failure.
The Apo Six massacre in 2005 remains one of Nigeria’s most infamous: five spare parts dealers and a young woman were gunned down at a checkpoint in Abuja.
The police brazenly labelled them armed robbers, planting guns as a flimsy cover-up. A panel of inquiry exposed the lie, leading to a reluctant apology from the Olusegun Obasanjo government and paltry compensation of $20,300 per family. But apologies don’t raise the dead.
Between March 2019 and February 2020, TheCable reported at least 92 extrajudicial killings by police—excluding COVID-19-era abuses and custodial deaths.
Security agents operate as if their uniforms grant them divine immunity, trampling due process without restraint.
The pattern repeats with chilling regularity. In November 1999, soldiers razed an entire community in Odi, Bayelsa State, after a few rascals killed some policemen. Echoes of this vigilante injustice resurfaced in Okuama, Delta State, and beyond.
At war, there are rules of engagement. Yet, Nigeria’s forces routinely flout them, massacring innocents in “collateral damage” even in peacetime.
The Zaria massacre of December 2015 by the Army saw hundreds of Shiite worshippers slaughtered in a needless reprisal for an altercation with the Army boss.
More recently, off-target drone strikes have claimed civilian lives: Tudun Biri in Kaduna State in 2023, Safana in Katsina in February 2025, and misadventures in Zurmi and Maradun, Zamfara.
These are not isolated errors; they are symptoms of a broken system where precision and accountability seem to be afterthoughts.
The Armed Forces and security agencies must return to the drawing board—professionalise, redefine their limits, and rebuild trust. Unarmed civilians must not be seen as enemies to be neutralised.
A crucial starting point: hold errant officers accountable swiftly and transparently. Too many evade justice for egregious crimes.
While two police officers were sentenced to death for the Apo Six killings, and Officer Matthew Egheghe faced the death penalty in 2014 for murdering Victor Emmanuel in Yenagoa in 2011, most perpetrators walk free, emboldened by a culture of cover-ups. This must stop.
Protests are mounting over the killing of Reene Good, 37, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Indeed, Minnesota claims the United States federal government is blocking investigations into the matter, setting the stage for a bitter row.
Therefore, justice for Timothy Daniel cannot languish in a bureaucratic limbo. The murderer who ended his life on New Year’s Day must face the full weight of the law—prosecution, conviction, and execution if warranted. Anything less is not just a failure of the system; it is active acquiescence to crime, perpetuating a cycle where the vulnerable pay the ultimate price.
President Bola Tinubu’s administration, the Nigerian Army, and the judiciary must act now: investigate thoroughly, prosecute vigorously, and reform radically.
Let Timothy’s blood cry out not in vain, but signal the end of this reign of terror. Tyrants dressed in military or police uniform must no longer be allowed to bleed the country any further. Nigeria’s children deserve safety, not bullets.
The Nigerian Army, the oil company involved and the Akwa Ibom State Government should compensate Timothy’s grieving family adequately.
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