After killing Timothy,the soldier put hands on his head,said he never meant to kill anybody- Miracle

Miracle Daniel, the elder sister of 13-year-old Timothy, during an interview with The Punch correspondent, recounted the devastating impact of his death on their family while calling for justice over the incident that claimed his life on January 1.

Timothy, she said, was her younger brother and just entering his teenage years. Miracle, 26, has completed her university education but is currently unemployed.

The tragedy, she explained, unfolded shortly after the family attended a New Year’s Eve service at Mount Zion Church in Ete, Ikot Abasi, on December 31, 2025.

While the church resonated with celebratory shouts of “Happy New Year,” Timothy stayed inside with other family members. Miracle briefly stepped out and asked her younger sister to accompany her to a nearby spot where she could relieve herself.

Recalling the events, she said the area outside the church was crowded, and they had to find a secluded place. “We found a spot close to the church, and I asked my sister to cover me while I quickly relieved myself. But before I could finish, a soldier approached and asked what we were doing,” she recalled.

Her sister intervened, asking the soldier to wait until she finished, but Miracle said the officer became aggressive, shoving both of them. Shocked and frustrated, she confronted him, asking if he realized he was harassing her. Instead of calming down, the soldier challenged her right to speak and slapped her.

Her younger sister also tried to appeal to his sense of decency, pointing out that it was wrong for a security officer to strike a woman, yet he struck her as well. At that point, another man, not in uniform but seemingly linked to the military personnel nearby, intervened and offered an apology on the soldier’s behalf.

The sisters began to move away from the commotion, but as they walked, Miracle said she suddenly heard a gunshot behind them. At that moment, she had no idea that her brother had been fatally shot, a reality that would soon plunge the family into profound grief.

Further talking, she said, “I told my sister that they heard the sound of a gunshot, indicating that the soldiers had begun to shoot. So, we decided to run away. We ran to a place where we saw a group of people telling a soldier that he had killed someone. We were able to identify the soldier as the same person who had harassed us earlier.

“We immediately realised that it was my younger brother the soldier shot. That was when I held his shirt and said, ‘Do you know that you have killed my brother?’ The soldier now put his hands on his head and said he never meant to kill anybody. While we were holding him, other soldiers came and forcefully took him away.”

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