Justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Lagos State government to institute a coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of journalist Pelumi Onifade during the 2020 #EndSARS protest.
Justice Faji also directed the state government to establish the cause of the death as well as identify and prosecute those responsible for the death of the deceased.
Onifade, who at the time of his death was reporting for an online television channel, Gboah TV, was allegedly arrested by police officers attached to a Lagos state task force while covering the protests, and he was later found dead at a mortuary in Ikorodu in Lagos, where his body was deposited.
The judge made the orders while delivering judgment in a suit filed by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) against the Police and the Lagos State government over the confusion surrounding the death of the journalist.
Although the court agreed with the defendant’s lawyer that the state could not just conduct an inquest without a duplicate of the case file, he ruled that section 74 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State gives the Attorney-General the power to request for a case-file from the Commissioner of Police.
The judge also held that none of the facts in MRA’s affidavit was denied by the Attorney-General, who only raised an issue of law, adding that in the course of oral arguments, the defendant’s counsel also undertook to conduct an inquest.
Justice Faji, however, dismissed five of the claims made by MRA against the Police on the ground that there was no evidence before the court to support them.
