Forty years after the assassination of veteran journalist Dele Giwa, calls for justice have intensified, with the Media Rights Agenda demanding the Federal Government’s compliance with a court order directing an investigation into his killing, while the Nigerian Bar Association urged stronger protection for journalists.
The call came as the doctor who treated him recalled the question the bleeding editor asked as he fought for his life, while a colleague revealed how the assassination made his five-year-old son abandon his dream of becoming a journalist.
The two recollections were shared on Monday at the launch of Dele Giwa’s Granite Journalism at the Kensington Adebutu Media Centre of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, where family members and leading figures in the media industry gathered to honour the founding editor-in-chief of Newswatch magazine.
Giwa, who was 39, died on October 19, 1986, after a parcel bomb exploded at his residence in Ikeja, Lagos. The killing, which occurred during the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, remains unresolved.
A medical doctor, Dotun Adedeji, who treated Giwa after the explosion, recounted how the journalist remained conscious despite suffering devastating injuries.
Adedeji said it was about 12.30 pm when a bus carrying Giwa arrived at First Foundation Medical Centre, Opebi, Ikeja, where he was the doctor on duty.
“I saw people running, saying, ‘they brought Dele Giwa’,” he recalled.
He said Giwa was rushed into the emergency room, where he saw injuries unlike anything he had encountered in his medical practice.
“What I saw, I have never seen again since in my practice. He was shattered. His two limbs were open, and he was bleeding,” Adedeji said.
Despite the severity of his injuries, Giwa could still speak and asked the doctor a question that has remained with him.
“But he was still talking. He said, ‘Dotun, se mi o ni ku sha? (I hope I will not die?)’ I said, ‘I don’t know’,” the doctor recounted.
Adedeji said Giwa died at about 1 pm, adding that the injuries were so severe that survival would have left him in an unimaginable condition.
“One thing was sure. I think it was better that he died. There was no way Uncle Dele would have lived with that injury even if he lived,” he said.
The doctor disclosed that Giwa’s blood stained his clothes and shoes, which he kept in a corner of his room for five years as a reminder of the journalist he regarded as a brother.
“He was not just my patient. He was like a brother. He treated me like a brother,” Adedeji said.
He also recalled that Giwa repeatedly asked about his wife, Funmi, and daughter, Aisha, who was about a year old when the bomb exploded.
“How is Aisha? Do you know anything about Aisha?” the doctor quoted the journalist as asking from his hospital bed.
Giwa was at home with Kayode Soyinka, the London Bureau Chief of Newswatch, who narrowly escaped the blast after excusing himself to use the restroom.
‘My son feared he would be killed’
Beyond the brutality of the killing, the anniversary gathering heard how Giwa’s death affected a child who had looked up to him as a role model.
Ray Ekpu, a close associate of Giwa and editor of the commemorative book, recalled that his five-year-old son had wanted to become a journalist like him and Giwa because their families lived close to each other.
But after witnessing the aftermath of the assassination, the boy changed his mind.
Ekpu said his son told him, “I don’t want to be a journalist again. I don’t want to be killed like Uncle Dele.”
The recollection brought the discussion beyond Giwa’s place in journalism to the fear his killing instilled in those who witnessed its consequences.
Ekpu said the incident underscored the need to protect journalists, lamenting what he described as the lack of serious efforts to safeguard their lives and rights.
“The truth must be told by us, and journalists must be protected. There are no serious efforts in protecting the rights and lives of journalists, and it is sad,” he said.
He added, “Whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword does not have Nigeria in mind.”
Ekpu also cited a figure of 128 journalists and media workers killed in 2025, using it to highlight concerns over the dangers facing media professionals.
Former Ogun State governor and veteran journalist, Chief Segun Osoba, recalled that Giwa had expressed fears for his safety shortly before his death.
Osoba said he had been with Giwa and the former Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria, Kehinde Adeosun, the day before the assassination, when the journalist complained that people were after him.
“Dele Giwa had complained to all of us that they were after him. We went to visit Aikhomu and told him about this threat, and he said he would do something about it,” Osoba recalled.
He said he was awakened by a telephone call about 18 hours later informing him that Giwa had been attacked.
“Eighteen hours later, I was woken up with a phone call that Dele Giwa was attacked,” he said.
Osoba described Giwa as an exceptional journalist and urged practitioners to remain committed to their profession. He also acknowledged Giwa’s widow, Funmi, and daughter, Aisha, who attended the event.
“Dele lives on, and he is still communicating in heaven,” he said.
Giwa’s assassination came two days after he was questioned by officials of the then-State Security Service on October 16, 1986.
The journalist had written about the Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market, a Central Bank of Nigeria policy introduced to determine the exchange rate and allocate foreign exchange through market forces. In the article, Giwa warned that if the policy failed, the people would stone “their leaders in the streets.”
Around the same period, Halilu Akilu of the then-Directorate of Military Intelligence questioned him over an allegation that he had spoken to some people about arms importation.
On October 18, Akilu reportedly telephoned Giwa’s home and spoke with Funmi, asking for directions as he intended to visit on his way to Kano.
On the day of the bombing, Akilu reportedly told Giwa by telephone that the matter had been resolved after the journalist questioned his repeated calls.
A package was subsequently delivered to Giwa’s residence and exploded, inflicting the injuries that led to his death.
A legacy preserved
The book launched to mark the 40th anniversary documents Giwa’s work and influence across the Daily Times, Sunday Concord and Newswatch.
Reviewing the publication, the publisher of TheCable, Simon Kolawole, spoke on the theme, The Pen That Outlived the Bomb.
He said the book contained 45 pieces written by Giwa and 16 contributions by other writers about the late journalist.
Kolawole described Giwa’s writing as lucid, playful and provocative, reflecting the force of a journalist whose work left a lasting imprint on Nigerian public discourse.
The publisher of Vanguard, Sam Amuka-Pemu, described the occasion as a memorialisation of Newswatch’s founding father, saying Giwa had changed the landscape of journalism in Nigeria and beyond.
“His articles in Daily Times, Sunday Concord, and Newswatch are memorable. The book being launched together is worth reading,” Amuka-Pemu said.
He added, “We leave the criminals who assassinated our good friend in the good hands of our Lord Jesus.”
Advertising executive Biodun Shobanjo also praised Giwa as a close friend and an outstanding journalist who spoke truth to power and made a significant contribution to the profession.
A professor of Mass Communication, Ralph Akinfeleye, described Giwa’s practice as “Journalism of Conscience”.
Nosa Igiebor, another Newswatch figure, recalled that he was at the office ahead for a 1 pm editorial meeting when Soyinka contacted him with the news of the bombing.
Igiebor questioned how anyone could subject another human being to such violence because of what he had written, adding that Giwa’s legacy endured.
The event was attended by Giwa’s widow, Funmi, his daughter, Aisha, and several media figures, including Amuka-Pemu, Osoba, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Nduka Obaigbena, Muyiwa Adetiba, Chuka Momoh, Onome Osifo-Whiskey, Tony Iyere, Eniola Bello, Emeka Izeze, Kazeem Akintunde and Kunle Ajibade.
Aisha, who was about a year old when her father died, said she barely knew him but was moved by the tributes and accounts of his life and work.
The event was convened by members of the Newswatch family, with the book edited by Ekpu. Soji Akinrinade delivered the vote of thanks.
NBA seeks journalists’ protection
The President of the NBA, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, has called for stronger protection of journalists and renewed commitment to freedom of expression.
She said the anniversary of Giwa’s death should remind Nigerians of the importance of protecting those who ask difficult questions and hold power accountable.
In a statement on Monday commemorating the anniversary, the NBA president said the passage of time should not diminish the value placed on human life or weaken the resolve to uphold the principles of freedom of expression.
“The passage of time must never diminish the value we place on a human life or our resolve to uphold these principles,” she said.
Badejo-Okusanya said lawyers and journalists shared a responsibility to question the exercise of power and amplify the voices of people who might otherwise go unheard.
“Our professions serve the public best when we discharge that responsibility with courage, integrity and care,” she said.
She noted that Giwa’s death was not only a loss to his family but also to the journalism profession and the country, recalling the shock that followed his killing.
The NBA president said the anniversary offered an opportunity to reflect on the courage required to ask difficult questions and the need to protect the freedom to do so.
“As we honour his memory, we reaffirm our commitment to freedom of expression and the dignity and safety of those who inform our society,” she said.
Badejo-Okusanya added that Giwa’s life and work remained worthy of remembrance four decades after his assassination.
She urged Nigerians to sustain the principles for which independent journalism stands, stressing the importance of safeguarding the rights and safety of those who provide information to the public.
MRA seeks justice
Media Rights Agenda has called on the Federal Government to implement a court order directing it to investigate the assassination of Giwa and prosecute those responsible for his killing 40 years ago.
The organisation said the failure to resolve the case, despite a judicial order issued in 2024, reflected Nigeria’s persistent culture of impunity for attacks against journalists.
In a statement issued on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of his death, MRA’s Deputy Executive Director, Ayode Longe, described the continued absence of accountability as a failure by the government and law enforcement authorities to deliver justice.
“Forty years is far too long for the assassination of a journalist of Dele Giwa’s stature to remain unresolved. His killing must not be reduced to a recurring anniversary in Nigeria’s media calendar, accompanied by tributes and expressions of outrage but without meaningful progress towards accountability,” Longe said.
He recalled that the Federal High Court in Abuja, on February 16, 2024, ruled in a suit filed by MRA against the Attorney-General of the Federation, directing the Federal Government to investigate Giwa’s murder and other unresolved killings of journalists and ensure the prosecution of the perpetrators.
Longe, however, said the government had yet to demonstrate any progress or report concrete steps taken to establish the circumstances of the assassination, identify those responsible and pursue accountability.
He described the government’s failure to act on the judgment as “a contemptuous disregard for a valid and subsisting judicial order.”
The organisation urged the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force and other relevant authorities to provide a clear account of the measures taken to comply with the court’s directive.
It specifically called for information on the status of the investigation, the investigative steps undertaken and plans to prosecute those responsible where the available evidence and applicable laws warranted it.
Longe stated that the passage of time did not extinguish the state’s responsibility to investigate an unlawful killing and urged the authorities to revisit historical investigation files, witness accounts, documentary evidence and other materials that could help establish the circumstances surrounding Giwa’s death.
He also called for the use of modern forensic and investigative techniques where appropriate and feasible to advance the investigation.
According to him, the failure to resolve the case after four decades sends a damaging message about the safety of journalists and the consequences of violence against those exercising their right to freedom of expression.
“The failure to hold anyone accountable for such a high-profile killing of a journalist as prominent as Dele Giwa sends a wrong signal to those who are inclined to attack journalists as a result of their work that they can do so without negative consequences,” he said.
MRA said its campaign for justice in Giwa’s case formed part of its broader efforts to secure accountability for the killings of journalists in Nigeria.
The organisation urged the Federal Government to establish mechanisms to guarantee journalists’ safety and ensure that law enforcement agencies respond effectively to threats and attacks against media professionals.
Longe said a meaningful commemoration of Giwa’s life and work required renewed commitment to truth, accountability, professional courage and the public’s right to know.
“As Nigeria marks four decades since his assassination, the most fitting tribute to Dele Giwa would be demonstrable progress towards justice for him and his family, stronger guarantees for the safety of journalists, and a national commitment to ending impunity for crimes against journalists and other media professionals,” he said.