PAdmin I Friday, June 26, 2026
LAGOS — A Lagos Magistrate’s Court has confirmed that a previously unidentified body deposited at an Ikorodu mortuary belongs to Pelumi Onifade, a young journalist who vanished in October 2020 during the nationwide #EndSARS protests.
The breakthrough follows a definitive DNA test, bringing a tragic, heartbreaking conclusion to a grueling six-year search by his family for answers, while simultaneously igniting fresh demands for criminal accountability.
The revelation was made public after the presiding magistrate disclosed that a DNA profile extracted from the long-held body matched genetic samples provided by the deceased’s grieving mother. The confirmation marks a pivotal turning point in a case that has come to symbolize the protracted struggle for justice and transparency regarding police actions during the historic 2020 demonstrations.
To understand the gravity of this development, the narrative flashes back to the turbulent final weeks of October 2020. Pelumi Emmanuel Onifade, then a vibrant 20-year-old reporter working for Gboah TV, an online media outlet, was actively documenting the historic youth-led protests against police brutality in Lagos.
On October 24, 2020, his professional duties took him to the Agege area of Lagos State, where a crowd had gathered near a government facility. It was here that disaster struck.
According to eyewitness accounts and statements from his employers, Pelumi was intercepted and violently arrested by officers attached to the Lagos State Police Command.
Crucially, colleagues and family members maintained that Pelumi was wearing a clearly branded press jacket identifying him as a member of the media. Despite his vocal explanations and visible credentials, he was bundled into a police vehicle. He was never seen alive again.
A few days after his forced disappearance, an unidentified body was discovered in Lagos and quietly deposited at a public mortuary in the remote Ikorodu axis of the state. Rumors immediately swirled within civil society circles that the corpse belonged to the missing reporter, but official confirmation remained elusive as state authorities initially failed to establish its identity.
Refusing to let the matter slide into oblivion, the Onifade family, backed by human rights lawyers, initiated a fierce legal battle against the state. This relentless advocacy culminated in July 2024, when the Federal High Court in Lagos stepped in.
The court issued a landmark order directing the Lagos State Government to conduct an immediate coroner’s inquest to determine the cause of Pelumi’s death and identify those responsible.
Concurrently, the court ordered the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to perform a rigorous post-mortem examination on the mystery body retrieved from Ikorodu.
However, the path to clinical identification faced an unprecedented logistical hurdle. Medical authorities at LASUTH explained that matching the body’s DNA was significantly delayed because the state’s primary forensic infrastructure had been crippled.
Specifically, reference DNA samples and equipment held at the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre were completely destroyed during the arson and widespread civil unrest that trailed the climax of the #EndSARS protests in late October 2020.
This severe loss triggered a prolonged, agonizing legal and medical stalemate between hospital administrators, the judiciary, and the victim’s family.
The chronological timeline of this multi-year struggle highlights the systemic delays the family endured: