Yakubu Mohammed, one of the founding editors and directors of Newswatch, has finally opened up on the assassination of Dele Giwa, the editor-in-chief of arguably Nigeria’s most successful weekly newsmagazine.
After Giwa was killed via a parcel bomb on October 19, 1986, there were strong rumours that he was investigating the death of Gloria Okon in police custody.
The young Nigerian lady was arrested in Kano and was supposedly a drug courier for the powers-that-be.
She died mysteriously, according to the grapevine, because she was about to reveal names that would have implicated the military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB), and his wife, Maryam.
However, there was another version of the rumour that Okon did not die but was surreptitiously flown to the UK.
It was rumoured that Giwa had discovered her whereabouts and had travelled to interview her in London.
He was about to publish the story when he was assassinated, according to the rumour which spread like fire in the wild.
Abubakar Tsav, the senior officer who investigated Giwa’s murder, seemed to support the rumour when he appeared before the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission in 2001.
