10th December, 2010
Veteran journalist and a former managing director/editor-in-chief of Tribune Newspapers, Mr. Felix A. Adenaike has asserted that nobody can find the killer of the founding Editor-In-Chief of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa who was murdered through a parcel bomb on 19 October, 1986.
According to Adenaike, the late Dele Giwa was murdered by the state and whenever such murder occurred, nobody can find the killer except where he was arrested by his own conscience and confessed openly. “The thesis of a Commissioner of Police has shown that where the state carried out a murder, nobody can find the killer except he is arrested by his conscience.
If he has any and he confessed publicly,†Adenaike declared.
Adenaike made the remark as the reviewer of the book, “jogging in the jungle, the Newswatch story†edited by Ray Ekpu, the Chief Executive Officer and Editor-In-Chief of Newswatch to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its founding.
At a well attended presentation held in Lagos yesterday, Adenaike commended the founding editors of Newswatch, the late Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed pointing out that since July 1985 that the first issue of the magazine hit the newsstand, the face of Nigeria journalism was not the same again.
He regretted that the struggle for political freedom and survival of the magazine led to the killing of late Dele Giwa, Adenaike described the 19 chapter book written by Newswatch writers as a compendium of the magazine’s history.
He also praise Dele Giwa’s influence on the Nigerian journalism scene. The former Nigerian Tribune Managing Director recalled that Dele Giwa and Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi met in America where they both studied. He said when Ogunbiyi returned to Nigeria, he wanted to stay with the Guardian Newspaper for only one year but in the long run, he never returned to his lecturer job at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife.
In a welcome address, Ekpu disclosed that Newswatch has published 20 books and has appointed Dan Agbese as the Managing Director of Newswatch Books Limited.
He recalled his incarceration and trial for murder over the article titled ‘Sodom and Ghomarah’. Ekpu expressed gratitude to former two-time Governor of Ogun State, Aremo Olusegun Osoba who mobilized people for a march round Lagos before his eventual release.
Ekpu noted that reading culture with standard of education has declined. He therefore commended the book to all Nigerians quoting Francis Famous quote,
Bacon’s “Reading maketh a full man, conference a nready man and writing an exact man.â€
The book presentation was graced by important difficulties like Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim the former Vice Chancillor, University of Lagos, professor Kayode Ibidapo Obe who represented Chief Leo Stan Ekeh and representatives of Borno, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and Abia State governors.
—Moyo Fabiyi