Veteran Nollywood actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has disclosed that her children received death threats during the 2020 #EndSARS protests, an experience that forced her to significantly reassess her approach to activism.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Rubbin’ Minds on Sunday, February 8, the actress, who has spent over three decades in the film industry, said she was no stranger to threats but described the #EndSARS period as unlike anything she had previously encountered.
“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,” she said.
Jalade-Ekeinde, who was actively involved in the movement—participating in protests at the Lekki Toll Gate and engaging in international advocacy with media organisations and NGOs—described the backlash as the most severe of her career. According to her, the situation escalated beyond online harassment when people began showing up physically at her home and workplace.
“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 added.
The threats against her family, she explained, prompted a shift in strategy. While noting that activism has always been part of her life, the actress said her children’s safety became a priority as they grew older.
“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 said. “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 in the protests was also accompanied by public controversy. Following the October 20, 2020 shootings at the Lekki Toll Gate, Jalade-Ekeinde faced criticism over a tweet in which she suggested that if no one died, the incident should not be sensationalised, while still acknowledging that a crime had occurred. The remark was widely interpreted as insensitive and as casting doubt on reported fatalities.
She later issued an apology, clarifying that she did not question the loss of lives and that her intention was to keep attention on the gravity of the incident itself.
The #EndSARS movement, which arose in protest against police brutality by the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), remains a defining moment in Nigeria’s recent history, with many of its demands for accountability and police reform yet to be fully addressed.
