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Thirty-seven years after the unresolved gruesome murder of the late co-founder of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa, one of his brothers, Tunde Giwa, has urged members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) to celebrate the journalist, who was among those that redefined investigative journalism in the country.
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Recall that Giwa was killed by a parcel bomb in his home in Ikeja, Lagos, while in his study with Kayode Soyinka, on Sunday, October 19, 1986, at the age of 39. The assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by officials of the State Security Service (SSS).
Two years earlier, precisely in 1984, Giwa and other journalists – Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yabuku Mohammed – founded Newswatch magazine. In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Tunde expressed concern over the attitude of journalists to his late brother.
He said: “He has gone but I still feel the pain. He brought light into journalism and died for this profession. But each year, nothing is done. If you ask some students of journalism who Dele Giwa was, they may not know. Members of NUJ, NGE and NPAN should constantly mention his name.”
He further insisted there is need for state actors to unravel the mystery surrounding Giwa’s death. “I will be happy if the police announce today that they have found the killers. If it were to be in the U.S., even after fifty years, justice will prevail.”
Also speaking, Ekpu said he just completed editing a book on Dele Giwa. He disclosed: “The book is from three sources where he worked: Daily Times, Concord and Newswatch. There are also comments by leading journalists. We did that to cement his legacy.”
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