5 Weeks After Lekki: A Mother Still Waiting To Bury Her Son
By Duru Clinton
November 26, 2020
It has been just over five weeks since the #EndSARS protests reached their tragic climax at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos. The barricades are gone. The hashtags have slowed. But in many Nigerian homes, the pain has not.
Far from the cameras and candlelight vigils, in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, one mother wakes up each morning to a grief that refuses to leave.
Janet Okakpu, a widowed petty trader, is living a nightmare no parent should know. Her two sons, Chibuike Okakpu and Victor Okakpu, lived and worked in Lagos, and had joined thousands of young Nigerians demanding an end to police brutality and a better Nigeria.
Chibuike lost his life in the chaos that followed the protests. More than a month later, his body has still not been released for burial. Janet’s daily prayer remains unchanged: “Please, allow me to bury my son with dignity.”
And the heartbreak doubles.
Victor, her second son, has been missing since the protest. Every sound at the gate makes her hope. Every unknown number makes her heart race. With each passing day, the fear grows that she may never see him again.
For Janet, #EndSARS is no longer just a national debate about police reform. It is the empty chair at her table. It is a son she cannot mourn properly, and another son she cannot find.
The Okakpus are not alone. Across the country, families are still searching. Some are mourning children who never returned. Others are nursing wounds — physical and emotional, that may never fully close.
The young people who trooped to the streets asked for justice, accountability, and respect for life. Those demands have not expired. But for families like Janet’s, justice also means simple things: the truth, answers about the missing, and the right to bury the dead.
As Nigeria tries to move on, it must not forget those still stuck on October 20th. Healing will not come from silence. It will come from compassion, accountability, and the commitment that no mother should ever have to beg to bury her child.
For Janet Okakpu in Ikwo, November 26th is just another sunrise spent waiting — waiting to bury one son, and waiting for the other to come home.
Five weeks after Lekki, the protests may have ended. For many families, the mourning has not.
