38 years after, family wants Tinubu to revisit Dele Giwa’s case

Thirty-eight years after his gruesome murder, family of the late founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch Magazine, Dele Giwa, has urged President Bola Tinubu to implement the court judgment early this year that the case should be re visited.

Recall early this year, a federal high court in Abuja ordered the Federal Government to reopen investigation and prosecution over the murder of Giwa.

Delivering judgment in a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Presiding Judge, Inyang Ekwo, also ordered the restart of investigations into unresolved cases of extra-judicial killing of other journalists in the country. However, in an interview with The Guardian in Lagos Giwa’s brother, Tunde, recalled, “it makes 38 years today my brother was stampeded out of this world by agent of darkness.”

Speaking further, he added, “if Tinubu wants to do anything at all, let him act on the court judgment early this year that the case should be reopened. You remember that when Buhari came, his government made a pronouncement that all unresolved assassinations are going to be reopened, what happened after his eight years in office? Nothing.”

On how Giwa could be immortalised, he suggested, “there are many ways this man could be immortalised. The question is what have the Nigerians Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigerian Guild of Editors and Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) done for this man? Let them emulate my council (Etsako Central Local Government), who took the initiative by establishing The Dele Giwa’s Inter School Essay Competition.”

Giwa was murdered on October 19 1986 by a parcel bomb.