. Ex-senator flays retired policeman for insinuating her former husband died for relating with her
Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns all clean, ravaging the innards till it smolders through the peripheral. Very few folk perhaps knew that Florence Ita-Giwa lives her life somewhere along a wide curve of ancient and unexpressed grief; the former wife of slain celebrity journalist, Dele Giwa, is yet to get over the brutal murder of the journalist and social critic with whom her marriage did not work out, months before his death. Florence, a former senator and Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters however, enjoyed a chummy relationship with her estranged husband even after they separated and this among other things is one of the reasons she blew her lid over Christopher Omeben, a retired Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police’s recent statement about her and late Dele Giwa.
Recently, Florence faulted the allegations made by the retired DIG, suggesting that her late husband, Dele Giwa, endangered his own life by continuing to relate with her after their separation. While extolling the virtues of the late founder of Newswatch magazine, Florence wondered why Omeben, an octogenarian, who recently clocked 80, would speak ill of a dead man that he once claimed he never knew or heard about in his previous interviews.
She noted that Dele Giwa was career driven and too pre-occupied with his profession to womanize. According to her, Dele Giwa cherished family values and he decided to remarry rather than womanize as alleged by Omeben.
The former senator also reiterated that from the time she separated from Dele Giwa, when they occupied a bungalow provided for him as official residence by the Concord newspaper, she never knew where he moved to until he was assassinated. Florence said she did not know the location of Newswatch either because she moved on with her life immediately after they separated from each other.
She insisted that they separated on very amicable terms, as friends to be precise, emphasizing that their separation was borne out of the fact that they were both ambitious and career driven individuals; the demands of the dreams and careers put severe strain on their relationship hence they could not continue with their marriage.
According to Florence, she was in Calabar, Cross Rivers State, when her mother called to break the heartbreaking news of Dele Giwa’s death to her. Promptly, she got on the road and embarked on the long journey to Lagos, the scene of Dele Giwa’s tragic death.
In Lagos, she was redirected to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) mortuary where she met the late Gani Fawehinmi who told her ‘Madam, they have killed your husband’.
He later instructed the mortuary attendant to open his body saying a wife is always a wife, and Dele’s wife is here.
She recalled vividly that she and Dele Giwa’s American wife, Billy’s mother, a few other family members and his colleagues like Ray Ekpu, Kayode Soyinka, late Sani Macabu were at the graveside till late evening and subsequently went to the village to commiserate with the family before departing.
Florence said that, “At that same period, because of the state of fear and anxiety, some miscreants did a letter of a ‘threat to her life’ and demanded for ransom which spurred her to proceed immediately to Alagbon to lodge complaint with the police.
Florence stated that it was while she was making her statement at the police station that questions about her late husband cropped up thus correcting the impression that she was invited for questioning as recently alleged in a newspaper publication.
She also recalled that on one occasion, she was to travel and on getting to the airport she was stopped but she called the police officer in charge of the case and he subsequently called the airport security requesting that she be left to proceed on her trip because she was not an issue.
Florence added that “no one should try to blackmail or tarnish her hard earned reputation built over the years by the Grace of God and by the support of the Nigerian people.”
She said she would continue to defend the late Dele Giwa’s legacy because she is proud and would always be proud of his professional and intellectual exploits.
