Yesterday October 20th, 2025, Nigerians gathered in towns and cities across the country to remember Pelumi Onifade and all the victims of the #EndSARS Protests movement. They marked five years since the protests began on October 20, 2020, with somber vigils, silent marches and social-media tributes for lives lost and justice delayed. Onifade, a 20-year-old freelance journalist covering the protests, was found dead days after his October 24 arrest, his body never returned to his family and his killers still unpunished.
Across Lagos and Abuja, demonstrators carried placards showing Onifade’s face next to the words “We will never forget 20-10-20”. One Twitter user posted: “Pelumi Onifade gave his life covering our cry for justice, we owe him everything. #EndSARSRemembered”. Another user tweeted: “Five years but no justice, no reform, our boots still heavy with grief.” The memory of the night at the Lekki Toll Gate, where Nigerian Army soldiers opened fire on peaceful protesters, loomed large.
Youth groups and human-rights organisations used the anniversary to demand overdue accountability. They held candles at dusk, observed eight-minute silences for each victim, and urged Lagos State authorities to release files on Onifade’s death and prosecute offending officers. Amnesty International Nigeria tweeted: “Today we remember Pelumi Onifade, a reporter who was extrajudicially killed in Lagos in October 2020 while covering the #EndSARS protests.”
Families of slain activists and reporters sat beside grieving supporters at the memorials. One mother shook as she said: “My child shouted ‘enough is enough’ — now I shout it for him.” Others formed human chains along the Lekki Expressway, chanting “20-10-20, remember the lost, end the pain.” Security forces watched quietly from a distance, as a hush fell over the crowd bearing both sorrow and steely resolve.
