#EndSARS: Lagos government directed to investigate the death of reporter

•Prosecute killers 

The Lagos State Government (LASG) has been mandated to investigate the death of a 20-year-old journalist, Pelumi Onifade, a reporter with an online television medium, Gboah TV.

Onifade, who was allegedly arrested by armed men attached to the Lagos State Task Force while covering the #EndSARS protest in 2020, was later found dead at a mortuary in Ikorodu, Lagos, where his body was deposited. 

Justice Ayokunle Faji of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, who took the decision, equally directed the LASG to conduct a coroner’s inquest to ascertain the cause of Onifade’s death and also identify and prosecute those responsible.

Delivering judgment on a legal action instituted by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) over the death of the journalist against the Lagos State Commissioner of Police (COP), the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the Attorney-General (AG) of Lagos State, Justice Faji held that the government’s chief law officer “cannot just conduct an inquest without a duplicate of the case-file”, even as he ruled that Section 74 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State gives the AG the power to request for a case-file from the COP.

Justice Faji threw out five of the claims made by MRA against the defendants on the reason that there was no evidence before the court to support the reliefs sought. 

The judge equally declared that none of the facts in MRA’s affidavit was denied by the AG who only raised an issue of law, with an addition that in the course of oral arguments, counsel for the AG undertook to conduct an inquest.

The legal action instituted by MRA through its lawyer, Charles Oyaole Musa (SAN), was brought under Sections 6(6) and 46(1) as well as 33, 35 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution; Articles 4, 5 and 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, 2004; and Order II Rules 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009.

It would be recalled that MRA had approached the court to seek the following declarations: “That “Mr Onifade’s shooting in Oko Oba in Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State, by agents of the COP and the IGP on October 24, 2020 in the course of his journalistic work is unconstitutional and a gross violation of his fundamental rights as guaranteed by Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (Cap A9) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

“Mr Onifade’s arrest and or restriction of his liberty by agents of the COP and the IGP on October 24, 2020, in the course of his journalistic work is unconstitutional and a gross violation of his fundamental rights as guaranteed by Sections 35, 39 and 46(1) of the 1999 Constitution and Articles 5 and 9 of the African Charter.

“The constitutional and statutory duties of the respondents do not extend to unlawful detention of innocent individuals who have not been charged to court or found guilty of any offence by a competent court of law in Nigeria.

“The COP and the IGP have an obligation to investigate crimes committed against Mr Onifade, a journalist exercising his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed under Sections 33 and 39 of the Constitution and Articles 4 and 9 of the African Charter.”

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