MRA Calls On Lagos Govt To Investigate Reporter’s Death, Prosecute Killers

Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has called on the Lagos State government to comply with the order of a Federal High Court in Lagos directing it to ensure an investigation into the death of Mr Pelumi Onifade, a 20-year reporter with Gboah TV, who was reportedly arrested by the police while covering the #EndSARS protests in 2020 and later found dead, and to identify and prosecute those responsible.

In a letter written by the organisation’s lawyer, Mr Kingsley Kenechukwu, dated August 22, 2024, and addressed to the state’s attorney-general and commissioner for justice, MRA urged the government to comply with the directives of the court so that justice would be seen to be done and hope given to the common man that there is still justice in the judicial system.

Kenechukwu reminded the attorney-general of the July 19, 2024, decision by Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji, citing page 15 of the judgment where the court directed him to take “all necessary steps to see to the investigation of the circumstances of the death of Pelumi Onifade and to conduct a coroner’s inquest to ascertain the cause of the death.”

The lawyer also referred to paragraph 14 of a counter-affidavit dated March 20, 2023, filed in the suit by the attorney-general, in which he stated that he would prosecute anyone found to have a prima facie case established against him in relation to Mr Onifade’s death.

“MRA is praying the government will comply with the court’s directives in the interest of justice.

“MRA filed the suit against the Lagos State commissioner of police, the inspector-general of police and the attorney-general of Lagos State, asking the court, among other things, to declare that Mr Onifade’s shooting in Oko Oba in Agege local government area of Lagos State, by policemen on October 24, 2020 in the course of his journalistic work is unconstitutional and a gross violation of his fundamental rights while his arrest and subsequent restriction on his liberty by the police were unlawful,” the organisation insisted.