‘Let us bury him,’ mother of slain #EndSARS journalist pleads six years later

By Ayobami Okerinde

Six years after the death of her son during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, Bosede Onifade has appealed to authorities to release his body for burial after a coroner’s inquest confirmed his identity through DNA evidence.

Pelumi Onifade, then a 20-year-old mass communication student and intern with Gboah TV, disappeared on October 24, 2020, while covering the #EndSARS protest in Abule Egba, Lagos.

Eyewitnesses’ accounts said the young journalist was struck by a bullet before operatives of the Lagos State Police Taskforce allegedly bundled him into a vehicle alongside arrested protesters.

In August 2024, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the Lagos State Government to conduct a coroner’s inquest to ascertain the cause of Onifade’s death as well as identify and prosecute those responsible.

Delivering judgment in a suit by Media Rights Agenda, MRA, over the death of the journalist against the police and the Lagos State Government, Justice Ayokunle Faji agreed that the government’s chief law officer “cannot just conduct an inquest without a duplicate of the case file”, noting that Section 74 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, ACJL, of Lagos State gives the Attorney-General the power to request a case file from the Commissioner of Police.

The coroner’s inquest, on June 24, 2026, confirmed that the body tagged 1385 at a mortuary was Pelumi’s after it matched the DNA sample provided by his mother.

Reacting to the judgement, Bosede appealed to authorities to release her son’s remains, adding that his death has left the family devastated.

“We want them to release his body. If they have already killed him, they should give his body to us to bury,” she told The Guardian.

“He was not doing anything wrong. Even if he was doing something wrong, they could have arrested him and not kill him in cold blood.”

Bosede said the six-year wait for justice had taken a heavy emotional toll, leaving her with depression and memory lapses as she struggles to care for Pelumi’s two younger sisters through proceeds from selling homemade ogi (pap).

“They said they would give families of the victims some money, but will it bring my son back to life?”

“But at least we can use it to take care of his siblings. I know that whatever Pelumi couldn’t do for us, his siblings would.”

She insisted she would never stop identifying herself as “Mama Pelumi.”

“Many people try to start calling me by his siblings’ names; I tell them not to do it because his name will never depart from my household,” she said.

The #EndSARS protests erupted across Nigeria in October 2020 against police brutality and abuses by the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), before expanding into wider demands for police reform, accountability and good governance.