Less than 35 years after Dele Giwa, Nigeria’s iconic investigative journalist, was murdered at his Ikeja residence via a bomb enclosed in a parcel, his closest associate and ally, Ray Ekpu has shed more light on their relationship.
According to the 72-year-old writer, until Giwa’s death on October 19, 1986, both of them shared virtually everything in common.
He relived his experience in Saturday PUNCH.
“I met him physically in June 1980 but I met him through his writings as far back as 1979; I think that was when he came back from America and started working at Daily Times as Features Editor. I was reading him avidly at that time. In 1979, I was Editor of Nigerian Chronicle in Calabar and I think he started working at Daily Times in 1979,” he said.
Ekpu also disclosed the kind of relationship they shared which went beyond the wall of the newsroom.
To further give an insight into the how closely knitted he was with the late journalist and his family, Ekpu revealed that he had free access to Giwa’s bedroom without anybody challenging him.
“We were very close; we were seeing each other every day or phoning each other. I don’t think there was a day that anyone of us was out of town without communicating. Both of us lived in Ikeja, a short distance from each other. So, we were going to each other’s house and there were also phones in our houses, so, we were seeing every day. The relationship was very close.
“In fact, the Concord people noticed it and they printed something and pasted on the boards of our offices: Dele Ekpu and Ray Giwa. That was the limit; I have never had a relationship like that with any man. In fact, we were living together at 25 Talabi Street, where the parcel bomb incident occurred. We were occupying two wings of a building. We had to break the fence at the back, so we could walk across to each other’s place. And then I had a big generator and I put it on his side of the building. So, we were both using my generator. And I could walk into his bedroom and take whatever I wanted even if he wasn’t there and his wife would just be looking at me. I would tell her I just wanted to get something from Dele’s bedroom and she wouldn’t stop me,” he said.
According to him, he was the one who got him acquainted with his wife, Funmi after he met her while running master’s programme at UNILAG.
“I went back in 1982 to do my master’s in Mass Communication, while I was Editor of Sunday Times. I met Funmi in the class of 1982 and Dele hadn’t got a wife at that time. He had already divorced Florence Ita-Giwa. So, Dele got married to Funmi and I was the best man at the wedding,” he noted.
