October 23, 2020, was the last day 20-year-old journalist Pelumi Onifade returned home to Bose Onifade, his mother.

The young man went out to the Abule Egba area of Lagos State a day later to cover the aftermath of the #EndSARS protest. There, he filmed what became his final report: Olusegun Abiodun Bolarinwa, President of the Yoruba Youth Forum, shooting at a crowd of protesters.

His video coverage did not go down well with the state task force. They arrested him on that day. Hours later, his family found his body in the Ikorodu mortuary. That was the first and last time they saw his body. For four years, Bose and her family continued to beg the state government to release his body for them to bury, but these pleas yielded no results.

On Friday, during a telephone interview with FIJ, Bose said she subjected herself to multiple DNA tests at the insistence of the government to prove her relationship to Pelumi. Despite this, she still did not get access to his body.

“When he died, I went to Ikorodu to look for his body,” Bose told FIJ. “I saw the boy there, but they said Lagos State was investigating. Later on, they [the state government] asked me to do a DNA test in Ikeja, and I did.”

READ MORE: Lagos Gov’t Kept Journalist Killed After #EndSARS Protest for 3 Years, Then Awarded Him to Sanwo-Olu’s Friend for Burial

Bose said things went quiet after the test, and even when the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the Restitution and Compensation of Victims of SARS Related Abuse and other Related Matters convened to hear cases, they never heard hers.

“I went to the #EndSARS panel six times, but they did not hear my case,” Bose told FIJ.

FIJ learnt on May 11, 2021, that the Lagos State Government wrote to the panel a month earlier to object to its hearing of Pelumi’s case.

Olukayode Enitan (SAN) filed a preliminary objection. According to him, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was not responsible for Pelumi’s death, so the panel could not hear the matter.

On July 23, 2023, a letter from the Lagos State Public Procurement Agency (LSPPA) went viral. This letter, addressed to the state’s Ministry of Health, confirmed the government’s intention to hold a mass burial for 103 victims from the #EndSARS protest.

READ MORE: 144 Days of Tears for Pelumi Onifade’s Mum as Lagos Govt Holds on to #EndSARS Victim’s Corpse

The government claimed it invited families of the slain persons to claim their dead but nobody responded. FIJ spoke with Bose after the letter went viral, and she confirmed that the state was lying.

“[After the letter went viral], we got a message asking that we go to the Lagos State DNA centre in CMS,” Bose told FIJ at the time.

“I went there three days later. It is on 48, Broad Street, opposite Bookshop. While there, I saw the files from the DNA I did in 2021 but they collected another sample.

“They said they were inviting people again to come and give samples and check for their relatives, but they did not offer any explanation for why they did not use the samples we gave LASUTH.

“We asked them to tell us when to come back for updates, but they told us they would get back to us.”

Bose said she did not want her son to be part of a mass burial but wanted to take custody of his body so the family could give him a befitting burial.

On Friday, FIJ called Gbenga Omotosho, Lagos State Commissioner for Information, but he was unavailable to answer the calls. A man who identified himself as Robert and claimed to be Omotosho’s personal assistant told FIJ he would relay the questions to his principal. The commissioner had not responded at press time.

FIJ also called Gboyega Akosile, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity. Akosile said the police were investigating the matter, and FIJ should quiz them instead.

FIJ then called Benjamin Hundeyin, spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, but he did not take our calls. As of press time, he had not responded to a text message sent to him.

On August 6, a Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the state government to conduct a thorough investigation into Pelumi’s death after Media Rights Agenda (MRA), an organisation that promotes media freedom, petitioned the court.