[size=15pt]I won’t mourn my son any more - Dele Giwa’s mother - Set to celebrate 85th birthday[/size]Shola Adekola, Lagos - 25.09.2008

MRS. Elekiah Ayiyi Giwa, mother of late Dele Giwa, is set to cast off her toga of mourning as she plans to mark her 85th birthday and pray for her son’s killers, 22 years after he was killed.


Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine, was killed with a parcel bomb during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida on October 19, 1986.


Explaining why she wanted to mark her birthday, having turned down such gesture from her children in the past, Mrs. Giwa said the devil had planned for her to go to her grave in sorrow, but she chose to do otherwise.


According to her, the last time she marked her birthday was before the death of Dele.


“I could not see a reason to celebrate. Dele was to me a cloth. You don’t expect a naked woman to go dancing in the market place if she is sane,” she said.


The octogenarian said she had left in the hands of God, circumstances surrounding the death of her son.


She said the birthday celebration would include a thanksgiving service for Nigeria’s deliverance from claws of the military and a prayer that democracy be sustained and its gains consolidated.


She said she would also use the occasion to pray for General Babangida, Halilu Akilu and Colonel Togun and their collaborators to “live forever.”

source:http://www.tribune.com.ng/25092008/news/news12.html