On 19 October 1986, a parcel arrived at the Lagos home of journalist Dele Giwa. Within minutes, the parcel had exploded, leaving one of Nigeria’s most prominent journalists fatally wounded.
Giwa would die later that morning.
The killing shocked the country, but the mystery surrounding it soon became almost as powerful as the murder itself. Who sent the bomb? Why was Giwa targeted? And what, if anything, did his death have to do with a woman whose own mysterious death had become a national controversy?
Her name was Gloria Okon.
More than a year before Giwa was killed, Okon had been arrested in Kano on suspicion of drug trafficking. She died in custody only days later. Almost immediately, rumours began circulating that the woman who died was not actually Gloria Okon and that the real Okon had somehow been taken out of Nigeria.
Then came an even more extraordinary claim.
Some Nigerians began to believe that Giwa had discovered that Okon was still alive, had traced her to Britain and was preparing to expose what he had learned.
That theory was never established in court. But it became so deeply embedded in the story of Giwa’s assassination that the two cases have remained connected in Nigeria’s historical memory.
The woman whose death started the rumours
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Gloria Okon entered national attention in April 1985.
She was arrested at Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano over allegations involving illegal drugs. The arrest came at a particularly severe moment in Nigeria’s history.
The country was being governed by the military administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari and Brigadier Tunde Idiagbon. The government had introduced some of the harshest anti drug measures Nigeria had ever seen, including severe penalties under Decree No. 20 of 1984.
Okon was taken into custody.
Six days later, on 28 April 1985, she was dead.
Her death did not end the matter.
Instead, questions surrounding what had happened to her became sufficiently serious for the government to establish a judicial commission of inquiry into her arrest and death.
That decision itself showed how controversial the case had become.
But before the controversy could disappear into the archives, Nigeria experienced another military coup.
On 27 August 1985, Ibrahim Babangida overthrew the Buhari government and became Nigeria’s new military ruler.
The change of government added another layer to an already complicated affair.
The extraordinary claim that Gloria Okon was still alive
As Nigerians discussed Okon’s death, a remarkable story began to circulate.
According to the rumour, the woman who had died in Kano was not Gloria Okon.
The real Gloria Okon, it was claimed, was alive.
Some versions of the story alleged that she had been secretly moved out of Nigeria. Others claimed that she had connections to influential people and possessed information about an international drug network involving powerful Nigerians.
One version went even further, linking Okon to Maryam Babangida, the wife of the new military president.
Another version claimed that Okon was actually Chinyere, the widow of Major Richard “Jeff” Chandler, and that she had been involved in business dealings between Nigeria and Britain.
The stories varied considerably.
What remained constant was the central allegation that Gloria Okon had not really died in Kano.
There was never conclusive public evidence establishing that claim.
But in a country where military governments controlled much of the flow of official information, rumours about powerful people could travel remarkably far.
And then Dele Giwa was murdered.
Dele Giwa and the rise of Newswatch
By the time of his death, Dele Giwa had become one of Nigeria’s best known journalists.
Born in 1947, he had worked with major newspapers before joining forces with Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese and Yakubu Mohammed to establish Newswatch in 1984.
The magazine quickly became known for its investigative reporting and willingness to examine subjects involving government and powerful institutions.
This was significant in military ruled Nigeria.
The press operated in an environment where governments could restrict publications, detain journalists and react aggressively to reporting they considered threatening.
Giwa nevertheless became one of the most recognisable faces of Nigerian journalism.
His work brought him into contact with political power.
By October 1986, the relationship between Newswatch and the military government was already tense.
The final days of Dele Giwa
Two days before his death, Giwa was summoned to the headquarters of the State Security Service.
He was questioned by security officials over allegations involving political activities and matters the authorities regarded as threats to national security.
The exact details of the interrogation have been described differently in later accounts, but there is no serious dispute that Giwa had been questioned by the security authorities shortly before his death.
Then, on the morning of 19 October 1986, the parcel arrived.
It contained a bomb.
The explosion seriously injured Giwa.
He was rushed for medical attention but died later that morning.
Nigeria had just lost one of its most prominent journalists.
But the question of who killed him had only begun.
Why the Gloria Okon story became connected to Giwa
The connection between the two cases emerged from the rumours surrounding both men and women.
There was already an unresolved controversy about Okon.
There was now an unresolved assassination involving Giwa.
The popular theory supplied a link.
According to the story, Giwa had been investigating Gloria Okon and had discovered that she was alive.
The journalist, it was alleged, had travelled to Britain and located her there.
Some versions suggested that he had obtained photographs or other information that could expose a powerful network.
The theory then offered a motive for the bombing.
Giwa supposedly knew too much.
The bomb, according to the theory, was intended to prevent him from publishing what he had discovered.
It was an explosive explanation for an explosive murder.
But there was a problem.
The evidence connecting Giwa directly to such an investigation was far less certain than the legend suggested.
What Newswatch insiders later revealed
The Gloria Okon story was not completely unrelated to Newswatch.
That is one reason it has remained difficult to dismiss entirely.
Ray Ekpu later testified before the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission, popularly known as the Oputa Panel, that a Gloria Okon story had existed within Newswatch as an item that could be investigated.
That testimony is important because it shows that Okon’s case was known within the magazine.
But another Newswatch founder, Yakubu Mohammed, later gave a substantially different account.
According to Mohammed, the Okon story had originated from a rumour mentioned at an editorial meeting after reporter Bose Lasaki said she had heard that the woman reported dead in Kano was actually alive.
Lasaki was reportedly asked to investigate.
She later returned without finding evidence to substantiate the claim.
Mohammed maintained that Giwa was not present at the meetings where the matter was discussed and rejected the claim that Giwa was preparing a major investigation into Gloria Okon.
This created one of the most intriguing contradictions in the entire story.
Newswatch had encountered the Okon rumour.
But that does not establish that Giwa had discovered a living Gloria Okon in London.
The London connection
The London story became one of the most repeated elements of the legend.
Kayode Soyinka, Newswatch’s London bureau chief, was in Giwa’s home when the bomb exploded.
Soyinka survived the blast.
His presence later became part of the speculation surrounding the Okon affair because of the belief that information about Okon had been obtained in Britain.
Over time, stories developed around alleged photographs, interviews and documents supposedly connected to the case.
The problem was that the popular retelling gradually became more definite than the surviving evidence.
The claim that Giwa personally located Gloria Okon alive in London has never been established as fact.
Nor was it established that Giwa possessed evidence proving that Okon was alive.
The story nevertheless endured because it provided something the assassination itself did not provide: a clear motive.
The murder investigation
The government investigation into Giwa’s death did not produce the definitive answer Nigerians expected.
Two senior security officers, Colonel Halilu Akilu and Lieutenant Colonel A. K. Togun, were later prosecuted in connection with the murder.
Their involvement became a major part of the legal battle surrounding Giwa’s death.
But in 1988, a Lagos High Court dismissed the murder charges against them for lack of sufficient evidence.
The court did not establish that either officer had sent the bomb.
Nor did the proceedings identify the person who had actually ordered or carried out the assassination.
The most important question remained unanswered.
Who killed Dele Giwa?
Gani Fawehinmi refused to let the matter disappear
One of the people who continued pursuing the case was lawyer and human rights campaigner Gani Fawehinmi.
Fawehinmi became one of the most persistent voices demanding answers about Giwa’s assassination.
His involvement was important because the murder was no longer simply a journalistic tragedy.
It had become a question about the rule of law, military power and whether powerful security officials could be held accountable.
For years, the case remained unresolved.
Then Nigeria returned to civilian government.
And an old mystery was reopened.
The Oputa Panel revisits the assassination
In 2000, Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission began public hearings under Justice Chukwudifu Oputa.
The commission was popularly known as the Oputa Panel.
Its mandate included investigating serious human rights violations committed during Nigeria’s years of military rule.
Dele Giwa’s assassination became one of the cases examined.
Former police commissioner Abubakar Tsav appeared before the panel and discussed the investigation he had conducted into Giwa’s murder.
His testimony generated renewed controversy.
Tsav alleged that his investigation had produced information pointing towards senior security officials and that he had encountered obstacles when trying to pursue certain lines of inquiry.
The testimony brought old suspicions back into public discussion.
The Gloria Okon connection also resurfaced.
But the Oputa Panel did not produce a criminal conviction establishing that the Okon affair caused Giwa’s murder.
Why the theory refused to disappear
The persistence of the Gloria Okon theory cannot be separated from the political atmosphere of 1980s Nigeria.
Military governments had enormous power.
Security organisations operated with considerable secrecy.
Journalists could be detained.
Newspapers could be shut down.
Political opponents could disappear from public view.
Against that background, unexplained events naturally generated suspicion.
When Gloria Okon died in custody and questions surrounded the circumstances of her death, people wanted answers.
When Dele Giwa was murdered by a bomb delivered to his home, Nigerians again wanted answers.
And when the authorities failed to provide a universally accepted explanation for the assassination, the two mysteries became connected in the public imagination.
The theory survived partly because it appeared to explain what official investigations had failed to explain.
The drug trafficking context
The wider issue of international drug trafficking also mattered.
During the 1980s, Nigeria was increasingly confronted with concerns about Nigerians participating in international narcotics networks.
The Buhari government responded with exceptionally severe anti drug policies.
The Gloria Okon case therefore carried significance far beyond one woman.
It touched on questions about international travel, illicit wealth, customs enforcement and the possibility that powerful people could become entangled in criminal networks.
Those fears made allegations about Okon particularly explosive.
But the existence of a drug trafficking problem did not prove that powerful Nigerians were involved in Okon’s case.
Nor did it prove that Giwa was killed because he was investigating drugs.
Those connections remained part of the allegations and rumours surrounding the affair.
The contradiction that still fascinates historians
Perhaps the most interesting part of the story is that the people closest to Newswatch did not tell exactly the same story about Gloria Okon.
Ray Ekpu acknowledged that the Okon matter existed within the magazine.
Yakubu Mohammed later disputed the idea that Giwa was personally investigating it.
Other accounts have continued to insist that the subject was more significant than Mohammed suggested.
This contradiction has helped keep the story alive.
If the Okon affair had never appeared anywhere in the Newswatch story, the connection would be easier to dismiss.
If there were conclusive evidence that Giwa was investigating Okon when he was killed, the mystery would be much easier to explain.
Instead, the historical record occupies an uncomfortable middle ground.
The Okon case was real.
The rumours surrounding it were real.
Newswatch was aware of the story.
Giwa was murdered.
But the precise connection between these events remains unresolved.
What happened to Gloria Okon?
The question at the heart of the affair remains remarkably simple.
Did Gloria Okon actually die in Kano on 28 April 1985?
The official account said she did.
The subsequent rumours said otherwise.
The claims that she survived and was secretly taken abroad became an important part of the mythology surrounding her name.
But no publicly established evidence has conclusively demonstrated that she survived her reported death.
That is why the distinction between history and rumour matters.
The Gloria Okon affair remains an important historical controversy, but the most dramatic parts of the story cannot simply be presented as established fact.
What happened to Dele Giwa?
That question remains equally haunting.
Dele Giwa died from a parcel bomb at his Lagos residence on 19 October 1986.
He had been questioned by the security authorities two days earlier.
Senior security officers were later prosecuted in connection with his death, but the charges did not result in a conviction.
Later investigations and public hearings produced further allegations and testimony.
Yet Nigeria never obtained the definitive courtroom answer to the question of who ordered the killing.
That unresolved ending is one of the reasons Giwa’s name remains so powerful in the history of Nigerian journalism.
A murder and a mystery that became inseparable
The Gloria Okon affair may never provide the definitive answer to Dele Giwa’s murder.
But its place in the story cannot simply be ignored.
Okon’s arrest and death created a controversy about secrecy and power.
Giwa’s assassination created another.
Between the two cases grew a story about a journalist who supposedly discovered a woman everyone thought was dead and was killed before he could reveal what he knew.
Whether that story represents the hidden truth or an elaborate rumour born from two unresolved mysteries remains one of the enduring questions of Nigeria’s military era.
What is beyond dispute is that Dele Giwa’s murder changed the history of Nigerian journalism.
His death demonstrated the extraordinary dangers faced by journalists who challenged powerful institutions during military rule.
And the fact that his killers were never conclusively established left a wound that decades of investigations, court proceedings, journalism and public testimony could not completely close.
The Gloria Okon affair therefore survives not simply because of the mystery surrounding one woman.
It survives because Nigerians were left with another, even larger mystery.
Who wanted Dele Giwa dead, and what did they fear he might reveal?
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Author’s Note
The Dele Giwa and Gloria Okon stories remain two of the most intriguing unresolved episodes of Nigeria’s military era. Gloria Okon’s arrest and death generated controversy long before Giwa was killed, while Giwa’s parcel bomb assassination created new speculation about whether the two cases were connected. Although the Okon affair was discussed within Newswatch and later featured in testimony surrounding Giwa’s death, the claim that Giwa had found Okon alive in London and was murdered to prevent him from exposing her story has never been conclusively established. The enduring lesson is that Nigeria’s history contains moments where documented events, unanswered questions and powerful rumours became intertwined, making it essential to preserve the evidence while remembering the questions that history has yet to answer.
References
Nigerian National Library, Born to Run: The Story of Dele Giwa.
Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission, Oputa Panel proceedings on the assassination of Dele Giwa.
Yakubu Mohammed, Beyond Expectations.
Ray Ekpu, testimony before the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission.
Abubakar Tsav, testimony before the Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission.
Federal Military Government of Nigeria, Decree No. 20 of 1984, Special Tribunal for Drug Trafficking Offences.
Contemporary reports on the assassination of Dele Giwa and the Gloria Okon investigation.
