Who Killed Dele Giwa? This is an issue that has been asked often by international human rights organizations, activists, and Nigerians for 38 years.
Journalism is the name for a profession in which people gather information, put it together in ways that are easy to understand, and present it to the public. A journalist is a person whose job involves writing nonfiction stories for newspapers, magazines, or online news sites. But, assassinations, targeted killings, and disfigurement during active duty are common strange ends to journalistic careers everywhere in the world.
Sumonu Oladele “Baines” Giwa famously referred to just as Dele Giwa was a veteran Nigerian Journalist. Born on March 16, 1947, to a poor family employed in Oba Adesoji Aderemi’s (the Ooni of Ife) royal home, Dele Giwa was raised without privileges. The late Giwa hailed from Ekperi in the Etsako Central LGA.
Dele Giwa went to America to study BA English then worked at the New York Times. After a few years he went back to Nigeria and worked at the Daily Times. Later on, Newswatch was formed in 1984 by him and fellow journalists Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, and Yakubu Mohammed; nonetheless, its inaugural edition was released on January 28, 1985.
In Nigeria, the magazine reinvented insightful newscasting. Analyst says, “these are people who are honed into investigative journalism. And remember the role they played when we were trying to get of the military out in Nigeria here. Tell did very well. The News introduced Guerrilla Journalism. All these are spill overs from our experiences and the role Dele Giwa played.”
Giwa died on October 19, 1986, as a result of wounds he received from a letter bomb that was delivered to his residence at 25 Talabi Street, off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos. At 12:27 p.m., he passed away at First Foundation Hospital in Opebi, Ikeja. Even though he was just 39 years old, he has become a household name.
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However, it has been nearly four decades since the untimely death of Dele Giwa, the founder of NewsWatch. The case to pursue and punish the veteran journalist’s killers has been reopened per a court rule. In addition to ordering the resumption of investigations into outstanding incidents of extrajudicial killings of other journalists in the nation, presiding judge Inyang Ekwo delivered judgment in a petition filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda (MRA) on Friday.
Despite the fact that the ruling was a positive step for the nation’s legal system, observers note that there were issues with the manner in which the inquiry would be conducted. They call for the Federal Government to follow the ruling and carry out the investigation into the late Giwa’s murders. They went on to say that the Federal Government’s compliance with the court order and its prompt implementation would serve as a deterrent to future criminal activity and a sign of the Bola Tinubu administration’s support for press freedom, the rule of law, and the freedom of expression.
Before his demise, the late Dele Giwa said: “No evil will go unpunished: any evil done by man to man will be addressed, if not now, then certainly later, if not by man, then certainly by God. For the victory of evil over good is temporal.”
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