Mrs. Elekiya Ayisat Giwa, the 87-year-old mother of the late Dele Giwa, Tuesday gave up the ghost at a private hospital (Aruna Ogun) at the Ikorodu area of Lagos State after a brief illness.

Dele Giwa, a veteran journalist and the editor and founder of Newswatch Magazine, was killed on October 19, 1986, by a letter bomb, the first of its kind in Nigeria.

After depositing the corpse at the Ikorodu General Hospital, the family picked February 9, as the tentative date for the deceased's burial at their home town, Ugekpe Ekperri, in Auchi, Edo State.

"Mama's death was the build-up of the crisis she suffered when Dele Giwa was brutally murdered. She was always a healthy woman until Dele's death.

"His death broke her up. It was then she became hypertensive," Mama's last born, Mrs. Abibat Ronke Giwa-Aboaba said to THISDAY.

According to her, more than his brutal and senseless death, the fact that more than 25 years after, his killers were yet to be found and brought to book did more harm to mama's spirit.

Giwa's assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by State Security Service officials during the regime of the former president, Ibrahim Babangida.

She added, "It was a very sad incident and the experience was most traumatic for her. She always cried bitterly each time she remembered him.

"It was until few months ago when she started letting go but by then the damage had be done. Months before she died, she made her peace with his death and said she had forgiven those that wrongful killed him in his prime."

Narrating the chain of events that led to the death of the mother, Giwa-Aboaba, whose house mama stayed till her death, said the deceased had suffered a stroke on December 22, last year and was expected to recover after treatment.

She said, "Mama had a stroke on December 22 and I initially took her to the General Hospital in Ikorodu where she stayed for a week.

"But when I discovered that their services were not okay for me, I moved her to a private hospital and she was there for one week too before she died this morning (yesterday)."

She described the deceased as a wonderful woman, very gentle, tolerant and always concerned about her children.

On the actions carried out by the family with Giwa's death, she said they tried to bring the killers to book but gave up later after deciding to leave them to God's judgment.

She however said the Late Gani Fawehinmi had truly championed for the cause, a fact that led to his death. "Gani was one of the major persons that spearheaded the fight to fish out those that caused my brother's death.

"He was even imprisoned for this sake and it later led to his death because he became ill as a result of the continuous imprisonment. Before he died, he gave his family instructions to hold a rally at Edo State in his honour.

With the octogenarian's death, the family moved her corpse to the General Hospital morgue in Ikorodu. They however complained bitterly about the state of the morgue.

Giwa-Aboaba said they had wanted a private morgue but since that wasn't readily available; they had no choice but to deposit the body at the General Hospital.

She however quickly added that they have put plans on ground to have her moved to the morgue of a military hospital in Lagos today. "No, mama wouldn't have wanted her body to be kept at the general hospital, especially in its present state," she muttered almost to herself.