6 years after #EndSARS, mother seeks son’s body – Daily Trust

Six years after the #EndSARS protests towards police brutality, the mother of slain journalist Pelumi Onifade continues to be in search of the discharge of her son’s stays, amid lingering questions over his demise.

Onifade, a 20-year-old journalist with Gboah TV, went lacking in October 2020 whereas overlaying the protests in Lagos.

Accounts of the incident alleged that he was shot and brought away by operatives of the Lagos State Police Task Force throughout an operation to disperse protesters.

His disappearance triggered a protracted search by his household, who’ve continued to hunt solutions about his demise and the whereabouts of his stays.

Speaking with Daily Trust on the phone on Tuesday, his mother, Bosede Onifade, mentioned she wouldn’t cease demanding justice for her son.

“Don’t I have a right to demand my son’s remains, even if they say he is dead? What do I tell my God? Do I tell Him that I cannot account for the son He gave me?” she requested.

She mentioned the ache of shedding her son was compounded by the truth that he had but to be buried six years after his disappearance.

“I really feel so dangerous each day about his demise and the truth that he has not been buried. People ought to worry God. I do know I don’t know folks, however I’ve God. The matter continues to be in court docket.

“I always remember his promise to make the family proud. We all looked up to him as the future of the family, but his life was cut short, and we couldn’t even get his corpse six years after,” she mentioned.

The seek for Onifade’s stays led his household to an unidentified body at a authorities hospital mortuary in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

The body, registered underneath identification quantity 1385, grew to become central to efforts to determine what occurred to the lacking journalist.

In 2024, the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his demise following a swimsuit filed by Media Rights Agenda.

Subsequent authorized proceedings, together with a coroner’s inquest, sought to determine the id of the body and decide the circumstances of his demise.

Reports in 2026 indicated that DNA testing had confirmed that the stays belonged to Onifade. However, his household’s demand for the discharge of the stays and accountability for his demise has remained unresolved.

His case displays the ache of households nonetheless in search of solutions about family members who died or went lacking in the course of the #EndSARS protests and the occasions surrounding the crackdown on demonstrators.

Six years after #EndSARS

The #EndSARS protests started in October 2020, following years of complaints towards the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which was accused of harassment, extortion, illegal arrests, torture, profiling and extrajudicial killings.

Thousands of younger Nigerians participated in demonstrations demanding the disbandment of SARS, police reforms and higher governance.

The protests drew nationwide and worldwide consideration following the capturing of demonstrators on the Lekki tollgate in Lagos on October 20, 2020.

The Federal Government denied that troopers had shot at protesters. Lai Mohammed, the then Minister of Information and Culture, described experiences of a bloodbath as a “phantom massacre”.

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry, which investigated the incident, discovered that protesters had been shot at, injured and killed.

The state authorities later rejected key components of the panel’s findings, together with facets of its conclusions on casualties.

Following the protests, police authorities disbanded SARS and established the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) group to deal with armed theft and different violent crimes whereas addressing issues in regards to the conduct of the disbanded unit.

However, the transfer generated controversy, with protesters questioning whether or not the brand new unit would carry real reforms or just proceed the practices related to SARS underneath a special title.

A 2023 evaluation of the #EndSARS motion famous that protesters remained suspicious of the substitute of SARS with SWAT, fearing that the identical abuses may proceed.

Human rights lawyer Onyeisi Chiemeke mentioned there was inadequate publicly accessible, independently verified proof to find out whether or not SWAT had considerably lowered police brutality or improved public belief.

He, nonetheless, mentioned circumstances of police brutality and harassment of younger Nigerians persevered.

“If the creation of SWAT had addressed the issue, then there would have been no need for the creation of multiple checkpoints,” he mentioned.

Chiemeke mentioned the continued controversy over police conduct confirmed that accountability couldn’t be achieved just by changing one tactical unit with one other.

He additionally cited Human Rights Watch’s findings that it had not been in a position to set up whether or not safety personnel had been arrested or tried for his or her roles within the crackdown on protesters.

The organisation additionally documented accounts of protesters who sustained gunshot accidents.

“The experience of the #EndSARS protests demonstrated that public confidence in the police depends not only on the ability to arrest suspects and prevent violent crime but also on transparency, professional conduct and credible consequences for misconduct,” he added.

Police fireplace tear fuel to disperse gathering at Lekki toll gate

Tension broke out on Tuesday on the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos as police fired tear fuel to disperse activists and anxious Nigerians who gathered to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest.

The gathering was organised to honour those that misplaced their lives and bear in mind the demonstration towards police brutality.

The protesters had been pressured to flee as tear fuel stuffed the world, disrupting the deliberate commemoration.

Among those that gathered on the toll gate had been the Lagos State governorship candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Funso Doherty, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.

Despite the disruption, the activists vowed to proceed the battle for justice and police reforms that impressed the #EndSARS protest, whereas retaining alive the reminiscence of those that died.

This shouldn’t be the primary time police have fired tear fuel to disperse folks gathered on the toll gate for commemoration.

In October 2021, police fired tear fuel throughout a memorial procession organised by youths and celebrities to honour victims of police brutality.

The then Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, mentioned the officers had been dispersing folks he described as “miscreants”, somewhat than members within the procession.

In 2024, police once more fired tear fuel to disperse protesters marking the fourth anniversary.

The protesters had referred to as for the complete implementation of suggestions made by judicial panels established after the 2020 demonstrations.

The police mentioned they acted after the protesters refused to disperse.