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JOURNALISTS: ARE WE SAFE ? -The unrevealed death of Dele Giwa and other journalists.

JOURNALISTS: ARE WE SAFE ?
-The unrevealed death of Dele Giwa and other journalists.


       Having been certified through a certificate, it is a license to move on a sacred path. Journalism is not a crime, we only serve as watch-dog to relay what has happened to the society fulfilling; fidelity, clarification, and intensifying to a scenario. All of these in the modern world have almost if not difficult to put into practice - rendering us as an empty barrel! It is so unfortunate that the law which establishes the practices of journalism is turned against us. They've made us forget our ethics buying us over with chicken feed.
      On 16th March 1947, Sumonu Oladele Giwa was born into a poor family in Ile Ife. Their family was so poor that they couldn't get an apartment to call a room of theirs. The wretched life his parents were battling with made him attend a local primary school which is not standardized to called a school. By struggling, he arose to beat and excel academically. when he was about finishing his primary school, his father had already been transferred to Oduduwa college as a laundryman, through his father working there and the grace of the Almighty, he gained admission to study in the college. Upon completing his college education, he got admission to Brooklyn college in 1977 where he obtained B.A in English and also proceeded to Fordham University.
       As a diligent and dedicated man he was, he worked for the New York Times, Daily Times among others. Having gone round and seen how print media works, he and the other three colleagues, Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, and Yakubu Mohammed founded Newswatch in 1984. The newspaper had its first edition to go for publication on 28 January 1985. The real print media they ventured into was News magazine. No sooner had the newspaper started to criticized the government than perplexity began. It is unarguably that Dele and his co-founder brought a new dimension into the print media which others have been following up till today. A 1989 description of the magazine said it "changed the format of print journalism in Nigeria and introduced bold, investigative formats to news reporting in Nigeria".
      There was a lady known as a cocaine pusher named Gloria Okon. He is known as IBB's side-chick. They both rapport in cocaine dealings. One day, news got to the Editor of Newswatch, Dele Giwa about the arrest of Gloria Okon. At that time, information has it that Gloria Okon is dead but unfortunately, Dele Giwa later has the authentic information that it was all a rumor. He then proceeded to phone call IBB that he has vital information that as soon as possible, will be ready for publication. IBB uses tactics on Dele by promising him and calming him that he would send him money so as not to get the news out. Unfortunately, the envelope Giwa expected wasn't what he saw. As he began to unravel it, a letter bomb exploded which ends the life of Dele.
      Many reputable journalists who were well-grounded in investigative Journalism like Dele have one way or the other met their untimely death in the hands of cruel people who wants nothing to be revealed of their dirty practices. Among all of these people, no one has been brought to book. The case of a Saudi journalist who took the same journey with Giwa named Jamal Khashoggi is yet to be nailed upon. The culprit who killed him has never been hampered on nor arrest them. what are they turning the work of a journalist too? No security to watch over. Are we truly safe???


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