Reopen Dele Giwa’s case, NUJ urges FG

The Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos State chapter in conjunction with the Dele Giwa Foundation wants the murder case of the founder of Newswatch Magazine, Dele Giwa, to be investigated.
The NUJ and the Dele Giwa Foundation said it is sad and regrettable that 30 years after Giwa was killed, his killers are yet to be brought to justice.
They stated this at a colloquium in Lagos to mark the 30th anniversary of Giwa’s death.
The Chairman of the occasion, Hon. Sani Zorro, who is the Chairman of Internally Displaced Persons in the House of Representatives, stated that journalism is like a battlefront irrespective of the beat.
Zorro also called for the support of journalists for a bill of de-classification of some documents to be passed into law.
He said: “This is an appropriate opportunity to call for the declassification of official records and investigation of the death of Dele Giwa.”
Zorro also stated that it will be appropriate for the attention given to Giwa to be extended to the late business mogul, Chief Moshood Abiola, adding that both of them played significant roles in the national life of the country.
Also, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Lagos State Council, Deji Elumoye, stated that it is unfortunate that journalists have now become endangered species in the course of carrying out their functions.
Elumoye regretted that after 30 years of the death of Giwa, the police are still yet to bring the perpetrators of the killing to book.
The Chairman of the Dele Giwa foundation, Richard Akinnola, on his part urged the Federal Government to reopen the case of the journalist, just as the case of Chief Bola Ige was reopened.
Akinnola said it will serve as deterrent for those who think that they are above the law.
The Managing Director of the Sun Newspapers, Eric Osagie, decried the condition under which journalists perform their duties, stating that 110 journalists were killed in 2010 and 67 of those numbers were killed in peaceful countries, while 43 were killed in war zones.
Osagie further lamented that the death of a journalist can take many forms, stressing that media organizations needed to pay their staff well to avoid having any conflict of interest.
The Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Fatai Owoseni, explained that investigation is a continuous process and that symposiums like this helps a lot in adding more ideas and information to an issue, reiterating the police’s objective to always protect lives and property.
Renowned lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana, represented by Malachi Ugbomadu, said journalists have a lot of work to do despite the many challenges they face.
Falana said they should be in the forefront of safeguarding the human rights of the people.
He also lamented the rate at which bloggers and other media personnel have been arrested by government.
Falana said: “Notwithstanding the claim of the government that press freedom is respected in Nigeria, the harassment of journalists has not ceased.
“On September 29, 2016, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Federal Government to release at least 11 journalists, bloggers and media support staff detained by security agencies across the country.
“The impunity with which the Nigerian security agencies have recently attacked the press is reminiscent of Nigeria’s darkest days of military rule.”
The Eagle Online reports that apart from Giwa, who was killed by a parcel bomb delivered to him in 1986, many other journalists have also lost their lives and their murder cases remained unresolved.
The Eagle Online also reports that the theme for the event was: “Safety of Journalists and the Culture of Impunity.”