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Onifade Pelumi

Onifade Pelumi was a 20-year old intern with Gboah TV, an online television. He was also a 200-level student of the Department of History, Tai-Solarin University of Education. He was reportedly arrested by officers attached to the Lagos State Task Force while covering the #EndSARS protests, and later found dead at a mortuary in Ikorodu, where his body was deposited.

We call for an investigation to the circumstances of his death and the outcome made public.

24 October 2020

Pelumi was said to have joined one of his colleagues to cover an attempted burglary by hoodlums at a government facility at Abattoir, Oko Oba area of Agege. But the police officers, who were drafted to the scene, engaged the hoodlums with firearms, injuring a number of them, and arresting some.

Pelumi’s colleague, said he saw him already shot, as he was dragged into the police van alongside others.

24 - 27 October 2020

Pelumi’s family and his colleagues conducted a search for Pelumi in various police stations and other parts of Lagos without success.

27 October 2020

Pelumi’s family and Gboah TV posted a missing person’s announcement on various social media platforms. The family later got a call from the police who scheduled an appointment with them for October 28th at their headquarters in Ikeja to discuss the possibility that Pelumi was in police custody.

28 October 2020

Police told Pelumi’s family and colleagues that they had arrested five people at Agege on October 24th, but that one of those arrested was dead and his corpse was deposited at a mortuary in Ikorodu, Lagos.

29 October 2020

Another appointment scheduled for this day but shifted till the following day.

30 October 2020

The family found Pelumi’s corpse at the mortuary, police said Pelumi was not among those they arrested on October 24, that they found his body on the ground at an unspecified location and decided to put it in the mortuary.

11 November 2020

A Spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, told CPJ via text message that Pelumi’s death had been reported to a new judicial panel of inquiry investigating allegations of police brutality, but declined to comment further.