Grief can make people say and do things that come from a place deeper than words—and that’s exactly what many witnessed in Jos.
Mrs. Favour Ayuba, a mother shattered by the loss of her son, Promise, has been captured in a heartbreaking video that has since spread widely. Her son was among those killed during the recent Palm Sunday attack in the Angwan Rukuba area of Jos North, Plateau State an incident that left at least 24 people dead and many others injured.
In the video, her pain is raw and unfiltered. Speaking in Hausa through tears, she stands over her son’s body, struggling to process the reality before her. At one point, she gently places a cutlass wrapped carefully in white cloth into his coffin. It was not an act of violence, but a symbolic expression of her anguish and helplessness.
“I carried you for nine months… you fed from me,” she says, her voice breaking. “If you want me to forget, avenge your death.”
Her words reflect not just anger, but the depth of a mother’s bond and the unbearable weight of loss. She speaks as though her son can still hear her, still comfort her, still act for her because letting go feels impossible.
She also recalls that the day of the burial marked his birthday. In the midst of her sorrow, she tries to hold onto faith, referencing the biblical story of Gideon a warrior who went to battle and returned victorious. Naming her son “Promise Gideon,” she clings to that imagery, as if searching for meaning or strength in a moment that offers none.
Between sobs, she admits she hasn’t eaten since the attack. Then, in a quiet but powerful shift, she promises her son that she will try to eat again a small step toward continuing life, even in the face of devastating loss.
This moment is less about vengeance and more about grief laid bare. It is the cry of a mother trying to make sense of the senseless, holding onto love in the only way she knows how.
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