Babangida Opens Up On Dele Giwa’s Death

Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.), has denied allegations linking him to the death of veteran journalist Dele Giwa. Giwa, who was the Editor-in-Chief of ‘Newswatch’ and a known critic of Babangida’s military government, was assassinated by a parcel bomb in his Lagos home on October 19, 1986.

Two days before the incident, a senior officer from the Directorate of Military Intelligence accused Giwa of illegally importing weapons to stage a socialist revolution in Nigeria. Concerned about the allegation, Giwa informed his lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi. The next day, Colonel Halilu Akilu, a security official, called Giwa to assure him that the matter was a misunderstanding and had been resolved.

A few hours later, a parcel arrived at Giwa’s residence. His son, Billy, received it and handed it to his father, who was at the dining table with Newswatch’s London correspondent, Kayode Soyinka. The envelope was marked with the seal of the Presidency and had instructions that it should be opened only by the addressee.

In his autobiography, A Journey in Service, launched in Abuja on Thursday, Babangida maintained that he had no involvement in Giwa’s assassination. He expressed hope that the truth would eventually come to light.

He said, “The hysteria of the media did not help the investigation of the Giwa murder. As is typical of the Nigerian media, the direction was marked by an adversarial attitude towards the government, which had remained the hallmark of the Nigerian media from its colonial heyday.”

He further stated, “It was an attitude of ‘we versus the government’ that has remained today. It is a situation in which the government is adjudged guilty even before the evidence in a case is adduced.”

Babangida also recalled that during the Obasanjo administration, the case was reopened at the Oputa Panel on Human and Civil Rights. He had expected new evidence to emerge, but none was presented.

He explained, “When the Obasanjo civilian administration reopened the Giwa case at the Oputa Panel on Human and Civil Rights, I expected that the police and lawyers would come forward with new evidence as to their findings on the Giwa murder over the years.

“Nothing of such happened. The Giwa, like all mysterious murders, has remained unsolved after so many years. I keep hoping it will be uncovered in our lifetime or after us. More often than not, mysterious crimes are solved long after their commission.”

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