Yakubu Mohammed to conspiracy theorists: “We were not interviewing Gloria Okon, we were not planning a story on Gloria Okon. Dele and I went to London together, I didn’t see him interviewing anybody, and he didn’t travel again before he was killed… Kayode Soyinka didn’t bring any tape or whatever from the alleged Gloria Okon interview.”
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
On October 19, 2025, it will be exactly 39 years since the founding editor-in-chief of the trail-blazing weekly newsmagazine, Newswatch, was gruesomely murdered while having breakfast at his 25 Talabi Street residence off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja Lagos. That was on October 19, 1986.
Death was delivered clinically via a parcel bomb. The novelty of the operation and its sophistication led to a number of conspiracy theories with fingers of blame pointing in the direction of then military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, but nothing came out of the investigations and the case seems to have been buried with Giwa and forgotten.
That was until recently when one of Dele Giwa’s colleagues came out with his memoir, a blockbuster, Beyond Expectations where he debunked hitherto settled assumptions.
But as Dan Agbese, another co-founder of the magazine noted in his preface, the book, “Beyond Expectations is a riveting read. It is riveting in its breadth and depth. It is riveting by the author’s command of language. It is riveting by what the author does not serve his readers.”
In quest of what Yakubu Mohammed kept off the pages of his memoir and in a bid to fill in the missing gaps, TheNiche in its inimitable style sat down with the renowned journalist in an exclusive interview that lasted two hours. And what an interview it turned out to be.
At 75, Yakubu Mohammed has seen it all. A graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Lagos, he was an associate editor and later managing editor of the New Nigerian.
READ ALSO: Beyond Yakubu Mohammed’s expectations
He edited the National Concord before he co-founded Newswatch with Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Dan Agbese. So, he knows the issues and is not afraid to say what he knows.
It is therefore not surprising that while most people accuse General Babangida and his junta of complicity, Mohammed says, “My conjecture all along is that Dele’s assassination has nothing to do with Newswatch.”
But almost four decades after the sad event, emotions are still raw and high. At a point during the interview, the former pro-chancellor and chairman of the Governing Councils of Ahmadu Bello University and Federal University of Birnin Kebbi became teary and couldn’t bear it anymore. “I think you better ask other questions,” he pleaded.
He is offended that some Nigerians are accusing them of not standing up for their colleague in death, wondering what else they were expected to do.
“It is in this country where after about a month or so, we now told Ray to take over, and somebody wrote in Sunday Times that we didn’t feel for our brother who died. What were we supposed to have done that we didn’t do which showed that we were not concerned? He asked.
“Just because we didn’t stop publication? Olu Aboderin died, did Punch fold up? Did they even stop publication for one day? But ours is different. Why didn’t we stop publication? Why did we appoint Ray editor-in-chief after one month to replace Dele? Haba!”
He particularly decried the role played by late Chief Gani Fawehinmi in the whole saga.
Narrating a particular incident, Yakubu Mohammed said: “Billy, who brought the lethal parcel to his father, made a statement and someone sitting down there said, ‘Billy, state that this parcel is from Babangida.’ I was sitting there and Billy, the blood son of the man who was killed said, ‘No, Oga, this was not how it happened.’ The man insisted, telling Billy, ‘Say it is from Babangida.’
“It was at that point I interjected telling him to allow the boy to say exactly what he knows. And the man said I should get out of the room ‘after all you are a northerner.’”
That man happens to be Chief Fawehinmi, according to Yakubu.
For those who insinuate that the surviving Newswatch trio of Yakubu Mohammed, Ray Ekpu and Dan Agbese refused to indict Babangida because of their friendship with him, Yakubu said none of them was friendlier to IBB than Dele Giwa.
“If you are talking of friendship, Dele was friendlier with Babangida… If you are talking about friendship with Babangida and his people, Dele was closer to them. They said he was even the one writing speeches for Babangida, doing this and that for Babangida. So, who was closer? Yes, it is a fact that I knew the man and still know him, but I wasn’t writing speeches for him.
“There are some things I don’t want to say because Dele is dead. The first time Newswatch did Man of the Year, Dele at the board meeting said we should name Babangida as Man of the Year and we rejected it. He wrote it in his column, using it to make Babangida Man of the Year. So, in terms of friendship, how can we be friendlier to them than Dele?”
This is only but a tip of the proverbial iceberg. The interview is revealing. It is Yakubu Mohammed at his forthright best, saying things the Newswatch trio have bottled up for too long, shouldering the burden of an assassination he says has nothing to do with either any of them or Newswatch as an organisation.
Starting from Monday, September 1, through Wednesday, September 3, we will serve you the over 12,000-word interview steaming hot. Each word, each sentence is a revelation. Keep a date with TheNiche, your favourite online newspaper. You will be glad you did.
