EndSARS: After 6 years, DNA finally confirms what happened to missing journalist Pelumi Onifade

SUMMARY

• DNA testing has confirmed that an unidentified body belongs to missing journalist Pelumi Onifade.

• The confirmation comes nearly six years after he disappeared while covering the #EndSARS protests.

• The coroner's inquest continues to determine how he died and who should be held responsible.

For nearly six years, Pelumi Onifade's family searched for answers.

His mother knew she had seen his body in a Lagos mortuary in 2020, but the state continued to treat it as an unidentified corpse. 

Now, after more than 2,000 days of waiting, a Lagos Coroner's Court has officially confirmed through DNA testing that the body tagged as No. 1385 is indeed the missing journalist. 

According to updated case details on the Killing of Pelumi Onifade on Wikipedia, the long-awaited forensic breakthrough was unsealed in late June 2026, marking a heartbreaking milestone in one of the most controversial unresolved cases linked to the #EndSARS protests.

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Pelumi Emmanuel Onifade was just 20 years old.

He was a 200-level History student at Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED) and an intern broadcast journalist with Gboah TV, an online media platform. 

On October 24, 2020, he was assigned to cover events in the Agege and Abule Egba areas of Lagos during the nationwide #EndSARS protests. 

Crowds had gathered around a government warehouse reportedly storing COVID-19 palliatives, and tensions were running high.

That assignment would become his last.

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According to witnesses and colleagues, Pelumi was wearing a clearly branded press jacket while reporting from the scene. 

He reportedly filmed a politician allegedly firing shots into a crowd before officers from the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Unit, commonly known as the Task Force, moved into the area.

Witnesses said Pelumi was shot and wounded during the operation. Despite identifying himself as a journalist, he was allegedly bundled into a police vehicle alongside other arrested individuals.

That was the last time he was seen alive.

For days, his family and employer searched hospitals, police stations, and detention facilities, desperate for information. 

As tracked in the comprehensive Onifade Pelumi Case Timeline by EiE Nigeria, Task Force officials finally informed the family on October 28, 2020, that an arrestee had died and that the corpse was deposited at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary.

Two days later, Pelumi's family visited the morgue and visually identified his remains.

However, the official narrative soon changed. Authorities later claimed Pelumi had never been in their custody and instead asserted that his body had simply been found on the ground at an unspecified location.

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Despite the family's identification in 2020, Pelumi's remains stayed in government custody under the label of an unidentified body, known only as Tag No. 1385. 

His mother, Mrs Adebose Onifade was unable to recover her son's remains for burial as legal proceedings dragged on.

The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) filed a wrongful death suit against the Lagos State Government and the police, while press freedom organisations repeatedly demanded accountability. 

In July 2024, Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji of the Federal High Court ordered the Lagos State Attorney-General to investigate the circumstances surrounding Pelumi's death through a formal coroner's inquest. 

According to the Media Rights Agenda report on the Coroner's Inquest, the proceedings formally kicked off at the Ogba Magistrates Court in Ikeja, presided over by District Coroner Temitope Oladele.

The investigation took another dramatic turn in April 2026. 

Officials from the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) claimed they could not match the body because the family's DNA samples had allegedly been destroyed when the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre was set ablaze during the October 2020 unrest.

But the explanation quickly fell apart. 

As documented in the MRA briefing on the LASUTH DNA destruction claim, the family's legal team exposed a major chronological flaw: Pelumi disappeared on October 24, 2020, while the forensic centre was burnt on October 23, 2020.

Because the family's DNA samples were only collected weeks after his death, it was logistically impossible for those samples to have been destroyed in the earlier fire. 

The glaring inconsistency prompted the coroner to reject the hospital's excuse and order an expedited, definitive forensic analysis.

On June 23, 2026, Investigating Magistrate Temitope Oladele opened the sealed DNA report in court. The forensic analysis established a definitive genetic match between Mrs Adebose Onifade and the body labelled as Tag No. 1385.

The announcement brought emotional scenes inside the courtroom as Pelumi's mother broke down after waiting nearly six years for official confirmation of what she had maintained all along.

While the DNA report confirms the identity of the body, it does not answer the most important question: how exactly did Pelumi die?

The coroner's inquest is still ongoing and is expected to determine the medical cause of death and establish whether officers involved in his arrest should be held criminally responsible. 

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