Giwa was killed exactly 36 years ago during the regime of a former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida.
Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) has promised to reopen the murder case of a veteran journalist, Dele Giwa.
Giwa was killed exactly 36 years ago during the regime of a former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida.
The AAC presidential hopeful who made this known on social media narrated how a letter bomb killed Giwa.
“36 yrs ago ex-military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida plotted with Halilu Akilu (Ex-Director of National Intelligence) and Col A.K Togun (now deceased) to send a letter bomb that assassinated foremost investigative journalist, Dele Giwa in his house in Ikeja. We’ll reopen the case! #DELEGIWA #WeCantContinueLikeThis,” Sowore announced.
It was widely reported 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. The assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by officials of the State Security Service (SSS).
In an off-the-record interview with airport journalists, Lt. Col. A.K. Togun, the Deputy Director of the SSS claimed that on October 9, 1986, Dele Giwa and Alex Ibru had organised a media parley for media executives and the newly created SSS. Togun claimed that it was at this meeting that the SSS and the media executives reached a secret censorship agreement. Under this agreement, the media was to report any story with the potential to embarrass the government to the SSS before publishing such.
Giwa was invited by the SSS to their headquarters for the first time on September 19, 1986, after writing an article in which he described the newly introduced Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) as "God's experiment".
He had suggested that if SFEM failed, the people would stone their leaders in the streets.
Giwa was interviewed and his statement was taken by two SSS operatives. He was later taken to meet with Togun, the deputy director of the agency in his office. Togun reportedly told Giwa that he found nothing offensive in the story as Giwa had also stated in the same story that he was hopeful that the regime would make SFEM work.