By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu
The Coroner Court investigating the death of Mr. Pelumi Onifade, a young journalist with Gboah TV, who was reportedly shot and arrested while covering the #EndSARS protests on 24 October, 2020, has given the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) 14 days to provide it with a report on the whereabout of an unidentified body tagged 1385.
The mysterious body was reportedly received by LASUTH from the Ikorodu General Hospital on 3 November, 2020 with a post-mortem examination conducted on it later that month.
In a statement sent by the Communications Officer, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Mr Idowu Adewale, the organization (MRA) explained that the investigating magistrate, Mrs. Temitope Oladele, issued the fresh order during the last proceedings in the coroner’s inquest on 3 March, 2026, at the request of Barrister Alimi Adamu.
Adamu led a legal team comprising Monday Arunsi and Mr. Somto Afulukwe, lawyers to MRA and Onifade’s family.
The court order followed the failure of LASUTH to comply with an earlier order made on 18 November, 2025, directing the hospital to produce “a comprehensive and specific report” relating to the body.
At the resumption of proceedings, in which Barrister Adebola Araba represented the Office of the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Adamu told the District Coroner that Pelumi’s parents, Mr. Olatunde Onifade and Mrs. Bose Onifade, were present in court.
Magistrate Oladele acknowledged their presence and formally expressed her condolences to the family over the death of their son.
Proceeding, Adamu said he had received confirmation that the protracted strike at LASUTH, which had stalled progress in the matter since the earlier order was made, had been called off and asked if the Coroner had received a report from LASUTH in compliance with the 18 November, 2025 order.
The Coroner asked if the order had been duly served on the hospital, upon which Mr. Arunsi confirmed that the order was served on LASUTH in January 2026.
The Coroner, however, noted that there was no proof of service of the order in the Court’s file, and Mr. Arunsi promised to follow up with the court’s bailiff, whom he said had earlier told him that the proof of service had been filed.
The Coroner also asked whether the lawyers had visited LASUTH following the suspension of the strike, to which Mr. Arunsi responded that he had been to the hospital, adding that he just returned from LASUTH that morning before coming to Court.
He explained that he visited the administrative block where the officials acknowledged that they had received the Court order but were unable to confirm if the hospital had complied with the order.
Alimi then observed that the 18 November order was directed generally at LASUTH and not to any specific official of the hospital, and applied for a fresh order directed specifically to the CMD.
Magistrate Oladele granted the application and ordered the CMD “to give a report of the body with the tag number 1385 said to have been received on behalf of LASUTH on 3rd November 2020 from Ikorodu General Hospital, within fourteen (14) days of receipt of this Order.”
She thereafter adjourned further proceedings in the matter to 24 March, 2026.
The coroner’s inquest into Pelumi’s death was convened on the orders of a Federal High Court in Lagos following a suit brought against the Police and the Lagos State Government by MRA, demanding, among other things, an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of the journalist.
In his judgment in that suit, delivered on 19 July, 2024, Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji directed the Attorney-General of Lagos State to take all necessary steps to ensure an investigation into the circumstances of the younger Onifade’s death and to conduct a coroner’s inquest to ascertain the cause of death, as well as identify and prosecute those responsible for his death.
*PHOTO CAPTION: The late Pelumi Onifade.
