By Muyiwa Akintunde
International journalist, Kayode Soyinka has challenged a recent interview by former Deputy Director of the State Security Service (SSS), Brigadier-General Kunle Togun (rtd.) in which he alleged that the publisher of the pan-African magazine, Africa Today, has questions to answer in connection with the death of the then Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine, Dele Giwa.
Soyinka, then the London bureau chief of Newswatch, was with Giwa when the parcel bomb that detonated and killed his boss was delivered to him at his Talabi Street, Ikeja, Lagos residence on Sunday, 19 October 1986. According to accounts, Soyinka was on the breakfast table with Giwa when the delivery of the parcel was made, and upon trying to pull off the seal on the envelope, the bomb exploded and shattered the celebrated journalist, who died later that afternoon at the First Foundation Hospital in Opebi-Ikeja, Lagos. Soyinka suffered severe damage to his hearing organs. As the doctors found out in the United Kingdom later, the eardrums in his ears were perforated by the impact of the bomb. Almost 39 years after the horrific bomb blast, Soyinka is still wearing earring aids.
In a podcast interview with journalist, Edmund Obilo late last week, Togun said that Soyinka was the only one that knew the kind of bomb that exploded on Giwa. But in an interview with Breezy NewsNG, Soyinka said that Togun was not speaking the truth, and that the allegation was preposterous. ‘He was a lair. As an intelligence officer at that level in the secret service of Nigeria, he and (Haliru) Akilu (Director of Military Intelligence) must know who made the bomb and who sent it to us.
‘He (Togun) got several facts wrong in that interview. The bomb was delivered a day after Akilu called the house to ask for the address and direction to the house from Funmilayo (Dele’s wife). I was there sitting by Funmilayo’s side when he was calling. And I listened to the conversation. It was a Saturday, and the bomb was delivered on Sunday morning — in fact about an hour after Dele had spoken to Akilu before coming down to have breakfast with me; not two days after as Togun said in the interview’.
Togun alleged that Soyinka evaded investigation, which could perhaps have assisted in unlocking the puzzles surrounding the dastardly incident. Togun said: ‘I am convinced (that Soyinka has questions to answer). And, in fact, DIG (Chris) Omeben put it in his autobiography; there is a chapter on Dele Giwa. He said that when they sent for Kayode Soyinka, he had run away. When the police sent for Kayode Soyinka, the answer Ray Ekpu (Newswatch’s Editor-in-Chief) gave to them was: “You know he does not work here”‘.
Soyinka took Togun up on the claim that he ran away rather than help in the investigation of the murder. He said: ‘I had him saying I ran away! I did not. I came back to London through the international airport in Lagos with my family, escorted by Newswatch chiefs and staff and friends. People, including airport security, saw us leaving and we weren’t stopped. The airline people recognised me, they even carried my children who were babies then and played with them and checked us in and took us inside the aircraft before any other passenger. So how did I “run away”?
‘The guy is not telling the truth. He and Akilu are the ones who know who killed Dele Giwa. They are the parcel bomb experts. He said he wrote a lot about me. Whatever he wrote, I am sure he must have got a lot of his facts wrong too’.
Togun queried Soyinka’s description of the bomb. He quoted Soyinka as saying that it was in a padded envelope, on which was inscribed: “From the C-in-C”. According to Togun, Soyinka said that there was an insignia of the Presidency on the envelope. Togun disagreed: ‘If there was an insignia of the Presidency on the envelope, there was no need for “from the C-in-C”‘. When Togun said that Soyinka was the only one who knew the kind of bomb that exploded, the podcast interviewer probed: ‘As the Deputy Director of the State Security Service, you mean you didn’t investigate the kind of bomb it was’? Togun responded that (the then President Ibrahim) Babangida wanted the SSS to investigate the incident, but when accusations came up against Akilu and I, he said the police should investigate it. I cannot answer questions about the kind of bomb, for instance. The Police and DIG Omeben should be asked’.
On the allegation that Giwa was eliminated because Newswatch was investigating a certain Gloria Okon, who was said to have been arrested by the security agencies at the Aminu Kano International airport for smuggling substances suspected to be heroin and other kinds of hard drugs, Togun said he was not aware of that, and that ‘journalists were the ones shouting about Gloria Okon’. Gloria Okon was said to be Babangida’s mistress.
Togun further said: ‘What I said was that Dele Giwa went to UK. And I said, “how can Dele Giwa go to London to investigate something and Kayode Soyinka claimed he didn’t know anything about it? And Ray Ekpu didn’t know anything about it? He cannot go there, on an intelligence investigation, and Kayode Soyinka, their bureau chief in London would say he didn’t know’?
Togun claimed in the recent interview that Fawehinmi paid damages to him and Akilu for defamation, a position the late lawyer’s associate, Richard Akinnola had denied. Togun said he could not remember how much Fawehinmi paid, but Akinnola responded: ‘The truth is that Gani didn’t pay any damages. Let me help Brigadier Togun. The court awarded N6 million as damages to him and Akilu for defamation, that is, N3 million apiece. But Gani challenged the decision at the appellate court. Except l check my records, l can’t say precisely now what happened to the matter at the appellate courts’.
But Soyinka remembered: ‘The judge in the case they brought against Gani, in which I was joined, awarded cost to me, which they refused to pay. And he (Togun) is claiming that Fawehinmi paid them their cost. I remember that Gani protested that he would not pay them. They therefore threatened Gani that they would confiscate and sell his properties to get their cost paid. They refused to obey the judge and paid me the token the judge said they should pay me, I think, for abuse of court process. I was represented in court throughout the case the Kehinde Sofola SAN chambers, led by Mr Kayode Sofola, SAN’.
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