My People Of Ekperi Really Lost A Great Man Of High Principles... Guruboi & The Entire People Of Ugbekpe Really Miss You.


The people of Ugbekpe-Ekperi, the ancestral home of the late Dele Giwa, founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch Magazine who was killed when a parcel bomb was delivered to his home on 19th October, 1986, still mourn his death. LEADERSHIP Weekend’s Patrick Ochoga who visited the community recently, writes.

Twenty nine years after the murder one of Nigeria’s most iconic journalists and the founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch Magazine, Dele Giwa through a parcel bomb on October, 19th October 1986 at the young age of 39, the incident still remains a huge loss for the practice of investigative journalism in Nigeria.

Also, as circumstances surrounding his untimely death remain a mystery, with the security agencies and government yet to bring the culprits behind the murder to book, family members and his kinsmen of Ugbekpe-Ekperi Kingdom in Etsako Central Local Government Area of Edo State are still hurting 29 years after.

For his kinsmen, the anniversary of his death evokes the stark reality of the many unresolved high profile murders by alleged government agents or their proxies.

When LEADERSHIP Weekend visited late Dele’s Giwa’s family house in Ugbekpe-Ekperi, the compound appeared devoid of its usual bustle, as only a handful of visitors where sighted coming in and out of it.

It was however gathered that most of the immediate relations of the late journalist live in Lagos and overseas. One of the few still living in the compound is a distant relation who identified herself simply as Ramatu. She lamented that despite the failure of government to unmask the killers of Giwa, the family is consoled by the fact that God will expose his killers.

“Each time people come here to speak about our brother I feel very sad because it is exactly 29 years now that he was killed with a bomb because he was doing his job, while the culprits are somewhere living their own lives and enjoying themselves. But we are consoled by the fact that God will one day expose those behind his death. We are not happy at all that our benefactor was taken away from us by evil people,” she lamented.

When Giwa was assassinated, he left behind an aged mother, who is now 84 years old, two younger brothers and three sisters.

The five siblings of the late pioneer editor-in-chief of Newswatch are Tunde and Biodun (both based in the United States), Hauwa Omomohle, Ronke Habibat Aboaba and Fatima Musa.

He is also survived by Funmi, his widow, three sons and two daughters.

Billy, his first son, who was then a student of the University of Jos, was only 19 years old when his father was brutally killed.

Incidentally, Billy, a graduate of English, who has been resident in the United Kingdom for more than a decade, was the person who received the killer parcel bomb from Musa Zibo, the security guard, and handed it over to Giwa in the study, unknown to him that it was the harbinger of his father’s death. Billy’s two other younger brothers whose mother is an American are Dele Jnr. and Tunde Jnr., while Giwa’s two daughters are Funmi, who is now a lawyer and Ayodele Aishat, who was about a year old when her father was assassinated.
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The traditional ruler of the community, the Ijegbai of Ekperi Kingdom, Alhaji Deke Kanoba, while reflecting over the sad incident, said it is only in Nigeria that such a murder could happen without a concerted effort to bring the perpetrators to book, adding “Nigerians know the quarters from which the bomb came from.”

Alhaji Kanoba said the late Giwa was an icon for the people of Ekperi land owing to his contribution to the profession of journalism.

He recounted “I must say that the Ekperi people are at loss each time we remember our brother. It is sad that we have a very porous justice system in Nigeria. It is not as if people don’t know who sent the bomb to kill Dele Giwa. This cannot happen in other climes without the relevant agencies getting to root of the matter.”

While giving a historical background of the Giwa’s family as told by his late father who was the Ijegbai of Ekperi Kingdom, Kanoba stated: “We are at least comforted that the Giwas realised that they are from Ekepri. Dele’s father actually grew up in the palace of the Ooni of Ife and that was why they nicknamed the father Giwa (the fathers real name was Bagudu). It was in Ife they gave him the name Giwa. We not happy that government has not done anything for the community, it is quite unfortunate,” The traditional ruler lamented.

He said that the people of Ekperi are always thrown into mourning whenever they remember his tragic demise because they have not been able to fill the gap his death created.

“Though, we do not know the killers, I know God knows them and one day, God will expose them, because there is nothing God cannot do. We still have faith that one day, the killers will face the full wrath of the law,” he said.

A community leader, Steve Momodu who hails from Ekperi, described Giwa as a pride of the people of Ekperi and Nigeria at large.

“He is somebody that was humble, honest and respectable. Dele Giwa meant a lot to us and as we speak now, his person is immortalised in our hearts because he is one of the trailblazers in Ekperi. You cannot write the history of Ugbekpe-Ekperi today without mentioning Dele Giwa. In fact, his name would be in history not only in Ekperi but also in Edo, Delta and, of course Nigeria; because you cannot write anything about journalism in Nigerian without mentioning Dele Giwa. So, he means so much to us and our people will continue to honour him even now that he is no longer alive,” he said.

He however, regretted that the late Giwa has been forgotten by those in authority despite the fact that he la!d the foundation for the robust journalism practice that has helped enhance democracy in the country today.

“You know that Nigerians hardly celebrate the dead. They are only good at showing sycophancy when you are there but once the person is gone, he will be forgotten.

“To be very candid, I think Dele Giwa has not been fairly recognised because he is one of those who promoted the entrenchment of the democracy that we are enjoying today. Part of his drive was to see that there was sanity in the system and that there was political order in the country and that was why his life was terminated. So, I think that the government of the day should begin to look into how to recognise our son who fought and won the democracy we have today, even though he is not alive right now.”

On his part, a human rights activist, Aliu Ozioruva, said Dele Giwa represents the new face of journalism in Nigeria, adding the late journalist “brought a new perspective of boldness, knack for in-depth reports and analysis into the journalism profession. He successfully built on the foundation the likes of Lateef Jakande, Pa Ajose and others of that generation had la!d.”

“He was able to lift the profession to the level where it actually became the mirror of the society especially with its social responsibility of setting agenda for the authority, regulating the society and ability to speak to truth. He represents what I call the bridge between the old and new in journalism, especially with his training in the United States where freedom and equality was their watchword.

“Dele Giwa brought the mentality to the journalism profession where the authority was continuously queried and scrutinised. Though it is believed that such characteristics also contributed to his death, many journalists were also encouraged by that boldness to stand by the truth even in the face of oppression, incarceration, maiming and killings.”

He lamented that “the Nigerian state has not been fair to him and his legacies. It is unfortunate that as at today, 29 years after his death, the investigation on the circumstances surrounding his death remain inconclusive.

“All we have heard has been different versions of how the parcel was delivered, how in the process of opening it, it exploded, how Dele Giwa had expressed fears few days earlier that his life was in danger.

But indications point to the fact that his death may have been sponsored by the state, considering that fact that as at the time of the events, Nigeria was under a military dictatorship.

“We have had various reports from former serving police officers on how their investigations were truncated abruptly without reasons been given. What the state should do, especially now that we are in democracy, is for the government to re-open the investigation. You will recall that late Gani Fawehinmi tried until his death to ensure justice for Giwa and the journalism profession. The last effort was his presentation to the Oputa Panel, the report of which remains one of the various documents available for government to work with. I will also charge the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to take it as a responsibility to ensure justice for Dele Giwa, his family, journalists and journalism,” he added.