Dele Giwa, 29years after

Today marked exactly 29 years since ace journalist and founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch, Sumonu Oladele Giwa was gruesomely murdered by a mail bomb, in his residence on 25, Talabi Street, off Adeniyi Jones Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.

Dele Giwa as he was fondly called, met his untimely death on Sunday, October 19, 1986, at the House 25 Talabi Street, which has now given way to a hospital. He was killed in his prime at age 39. Had he been alive today, he would be 68 years old.


That Sunday morning, the merchants of death gave the deadly parcel to his then 19-year-old son, Billy, who received it on his behalf.

The assailants had vanished into thin air when he attempted to open the parcel and a blast occurred “tearing open’’ his lower region.

His colleague, Newswatch’s London Bureau Chief, Kayode Soyinka, who was with him at the time of the tragic event, suffered perforated eardrums. Giwa died at the First Foundation Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, where he was rushed to after the explosion.

Dele Giwa was born on March 16, 1947 to a poor family working in the palace of Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife.

He attended local Authority Modern School in Lagere, Ile-lfe.

When his father moved to Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife as a laundry man, he gained admission to that school.

Dele Giwa travelled to the USA for his higher education, earning a BA in English and Communication Arts from Brooklyn College in 1977 and enrolled for a Graduate program at Fordham University.

He worked with the New York Times as a news assistant for four years after which he relocated to Nigeria to work with Daily Times.

Later, in 1984, Dele Giwa and fellow journalists Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed founded Newswatch and the first edition was distributed on 28 January 1985.

A 1989 description of the magazine said it “changed the format of print journalism in Nigeria [and] introduced bold, investigative formats to news reporting in Nigeria”.

However, in the first few months of the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, who took power in August 1985, the magazine was shamelessly flattering. It printed his face on the cover four times and even criticised “anyone who attempted to make life unpleasant for Babangida.”