By Adenla Ahmed Abiola
THE Coroner Court investigating the death of Mr Pelumi Onifade, a young journalist with Gboah TV, has ordered the Chief Medical Examiner of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to forward to the court within 21 days the autopsy report for an unidentified body tagged 1385 which is believed to be that of the late journalist.
The investigating magistrate, Temitope Oladele, also issued a separate order to the Director of the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre to forward to the court within 21 days, the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) test result for the same body for which DNA samples collected by LASUTH from the body and Mr. Onifade’s parents were forwarded to it.
The coroner issued the orders at the resumed hearing in the inquest into the death of Mr. Onifade, who was reportedly arrested by policemen attached to a Lagos State task force while he was covering the #EndSARS protests in 2020, and later found dead at the Ikorodu General Hospital mortuary, where his body was deposited.
The inquest was convened on the orders of a Federal High Court in Lagos following a wrongful death suit brought against the Police and the Lagos State Government by Media Rights Agenda (MRA) demanding, among other things, an investigation into the late journalist’s death and the prosecution of those responsible for his death.
In his judgment in the suit delivered on July 19, 2024, Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji directed the Attorney-General to ensure an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. 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.
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A.I
June 6, 2026