A POSTMORTEM examination conducted at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) has confirmed that journalist Pelumi Onifade died from a firearm injury to the abdomen that caused massive internal bleeding.
The Media Rights Agenda (MRA) disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, September 17, following the submission of the postmortem report to the Coroner Court investigating Onifade’s death.
Onifade, a young journalist with Gboah TV, was reportedly shot and arrested by security operatives on October 24, 2020, while covering the #EndSARS protests in Lagos State.
According to the nine-page postmortem report cited by MRA, the firearm projectile entered through the lower back and caused extensive damage to Onifade’s abdominal region.
The report, which it said was signed by Sunday Sokunle Soyemi, a Professor and Consultant Pathologist, on July 30, 2026, listed the cause of death as “massive haemoperitoneum” and “penetrating firearms injury to the abdomen.”
Massive haemoperitoneum refers to the accumulation of a large quantity of blood in the abdominal cavity, usually resulting from severe internal injuries.
The report found “bony spicules embedded in soft tissue of abdomen,” which MRA said was consistent with a penetrating firearm injury, as well as a fracture of the fifth lumbar vertebra.
It also stated that the projectile travelled in a “posterior-to-anterior, right-to-left and infero-superior” direction, indicating that it entered from the back and travelled towards the front, from right to left and from a lower to a higher position.
According to MRA, the autopsy was conducted on November 4, 2020, at the LASUTH morgue by Soyemi, with John Oladapo Obafunwa, a Professor and Supervising Consultant, in attendance.
The body examined was tagged number 1385 and was later identified as Onifade through DNA analysis by the Lagos State DNA and Forensic Centre, the organisation said.
