DNA Finally Solves Mystery of Missing EndSARS Journalist After Years of Silence

(Pelumi Onifade. Photo Credit: TheCable)

DNA test results have confirmed that the unidentified body deposited at an Ikorodu môrtuary belongs to Pelumi Onifade, a reporter who went missing during the 2020 #EndSARS protests.

Onifade Emmanuel Pelumi was covering the youth-led demonstrations in 2020 when he was arr£sted by police officers in Agege on October 24 of that year, despite identifying himself as a journalist and wearing a press jacket at the time.

Days after his arr£st, an unidentified body was discovered at a môrtuary in Ikorodu, Lagos, raising suspicions that it could be Pelumi.

In July 2024, a Federal High Court in Lagos directed the Lagos State Government to launch a coroner's inquest into the circumstances surrounding his d£ath and ordered the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to conduct a post-mortem examination on the unidentified body received from Ikorodu.

LASUTH disclosed that initial identification of the body had been impossible after DNA samples stored at the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre were d£stroyed during the #EndSARS unrest in October 2020.

Following a prolonged legal process, a DNA test was eventually carried out using a sample provided by Pelumi's mother.

A magistrate subsequently confirmed that the DNA results established a match between the previously unidentified body and the sample from Pelumi's mother bringing a painful but long-awaited confirmation to his family after years of uncertainty.

His legal counsel is now demanding an autopsy to determine the exact cause of his d£ath. The case has been adjourned to July 7, 2026.