ENDSARS: Court Orders Lagos To Probe Killing Of Journalist

 By Azi Aaron

A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Lagos State Government to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of Pelumi Onifade, a twenty-year-old reporter who was arrested by the police during the #EndSARS protests in 2020 and later found dead in a mortuary.

The court also directed the government to conduct a coroner’s inquest to determine the cause of death and identify those responsible for the journalist’s demise. In a statement by the Communications Officer, Media Rights Agenda, Idowu Adewale, the judgment was delivered by Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji in a suit filed by the MRA against the police and the state government.

According to the statement, Justice Faji, agreed that the government’s Chief Law Officer cannot just conduct an inquest without a duplicate of the case-file, but ruled that Section 74 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State gives the Attorney-General the power to request a case file from the Commissioner of Police.