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Pelumi Onifade, a 20 year old journalist was reportedly killed by officials of the Nigerian police attached to the Lagos State Task Force on Saturday, October 24, 2020.
Until the report of his murder, he was a 100-level student of the Department of History, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, working as an intern with GboahTV, an online television.
Onifade who had been initially declared missing by his family was found dead as his body was dumped at the mortuary of Ikorodu General Hospital.
According to a report by the Tai Solarin University of Education Students’ Union, he was with the GboahTV crew to cover an event at Oko-Oba area in Agege, Lagos, on the day of the unfortunate incident. A large crowd of people was said to have gathered around a government facility in the area as they believed COVID-19 palliatives were kept there.
On arriving the scene, men of the Lagos Task Force were said to be throwing bottles and shooting gun sporadically to disperse the gathered crowd. In the process, “Pelumi was grabbed in the process by the men of the Task Force led by one Taiwo Akerele on the order of Egbeyemi Yinka (both police officers). The other members of the press crew took a turn to identify Pelumi as their colleague while the officers were dragging him (Pelumi) into a Black Maria.”
Onifade’s colleagues feared for their lives and fled the scene, after the officers threatened to shoot and kill them on the spot, despite showing their ID cards. They thought they would go and secure his bail at the police station.
As narrated by a Twitter thread containing details of what led up to his death, this eventually happened:
“A thorough search was conducted from Police Stations to Prisons all over Lagos state for 4days (Saturday 24th to Tuesday 27th) after which a ‘Missing Person’ Graphics was shared across all social media platforms to aid the search of Onifade Pelumi which went viral. That same evening of Tuesday 27th of October, the head of Taskforce Lagos State called, saying he saw the post, and they agreed to meet on Wednesday the 28th of October at the State Headquarters, Ikeja. After the meeting with the task force, the officer that led the squad said that they arrested 5 people at the Ministry of Agriculture Abattoir, Oko-Oba, Agege, but 1 person died and they have dumped his corpse at Ikorodu Mortuary. They scheduled a meeting for Thursday to confirm if his name was on the list of those arrested. If not they will go to the mortuary at Ikorodu to confirm. Due to the public holiday on Thursday the appointment was rescheduled for Friday. On Friday Morning they got to Ikorodu and behold it was Pelumi Onifade’s Corpse”.
The family of the late journalist are now calling for justice for their son and requesting that his corpse be released to them after they had been denied the request, according to reports by the family on Sahara Reporters.
Meanwhile, the Tai Solarin University of Education Students’ Union said in that statement (referenced above) that they would “mobilise all forces within our reach to legally and politically get justice for the live terminated” and also hold “the Lagos State Government and the Nigerian Police Force accountable for the murder of this innocent young Nigerian.”
Ganiu Oloruntade
