My kids got death threats during #EndSARS — Actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde

Veteran Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has revealed that her children received death threats during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, a development that forced her to fundamentally rethink her approach to activism.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Rubbin’ Minds on Sunday, February 8, the actress with a three-decade career stated, “I am used to death threats; I have received them many times. But I have never seen anything like what happened during #EndSARS. It was intense. My kids started getting death threats. That was when it became weird.”

Jalade-Ekeinde, who was actively involved in the movement—protesting at the Lekki Toll Gate and engaging in international advocacy with media and NGOs—described the period as the most intense backlash she has ever faced. The situation escalated beyond online threats. “When people started coming physically to my home and place of work to look for me, I knew I had to worry about other people and not just myself,” she said.

This personal risk to her family prompted a strategic shift. “I believe I have been an activist all my life… But when [my children] got older, I had to restrategise. I can’t control where they go… and I don’t want my children to become victims of choices that I have made,” she explained. “It was the ENDSARS experience that made it clear that I needed to restrategise. Instead of physical activism, I moved fully into advocacy.”

Her involvement during #EndSARS was also marked by public controversy. Following the shootings at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, Jalade-Ekeinde faced significant backlash for a tweet that suggested, “if no one died, people should stop sensationalising” the event, as it “does not remove from the crime that happened.” Many Nigerians found the comment insensitive and perceived it as questioning the confirmed deaths at the scene.

She later apologized, clarifying that she did not doubt the loss of life and was attempting to keep the focus on the atrocity itself. The #EndSARS movement, which protested police brutality by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), remains a pivotal moment in recent Nigerian history, with many of its demands for justice and police reform still unfulfilled.