Gloria Okon was a Lady who was arrested in 1985 by the National Security Organization (NSO) at the Aminu Kano International airport on suspicion of drug smuggling. Soon after, the NSO alleged that she had died in custody, the government subsequently constituted a commission of inquiry to investigate the matter.[19]

Conspiracy theorists allege that Gloria Okon was a drug mule working for the wife of General Ibrahim Babangida who was then the Minister of Defence in the regime of General Muhammadu Buhari. The theorists allege that during interrogation by the NSO Okon had claimed that she worked for highly placed Nigerians, in particular Babangida's wife. The theory goes on that Babangida spirited Okon out of detention to the United Kingdom, sold the public the ruse of a dead Gloria Okon and that Dele Giwa happened upon Okon on a trip to the UK where she told him her story. The story goes on that armed with this information, Giwa tried to blackmail the now Military President, Ibrahim Babangida and this was why he was killed. This blackmail theory might not be unconnected with the off-the-record interview that Lt Col A.K Togun gave to airport correspondents of the Guardian on 27 October 1986. In the interview, when asked about Dele Giwa's killing and the suspicion in the public that he was killed by the government, Togun was quoted as saying "...one person cannot come out to blackmail us. I am an expert in blackmail. I can blackmail very well. I studied propaganda so no one person can come and blackmail us after an agreement...". Togun's statement was in the context of the secret agreement reached by Giwa and other media executives at the 9 October meeting, he seemed to accuse Giwa of reneging on the agreement leading to Giwa being invited for questioning on 16 October. Theorists also allege that Babangida's drug running activities were brought to the attention of the Buhari-Idiagbon regime which led the regime to slate him for retirement on 1 October 1985. They also say that it was his impending retirement that inspired him to plan the coup that toppled Buhari in August 1985.[14][20]

Giwa's colleagues at Newswatch have debunked this theory and deny any link between Giwa, Gloria Okon and Mrs. Babangida. In a Newswatch interview marking the twenty fifth anniversary of the magazine, one of the founding partners of the organisation Yakubu Mohammed explained the Giwa-Newswatch-Gloria Okon link. Mohammed claims that Dele Giwa had not been writing any Gloria Okon story and that the closest Newswatch got to a Gloria Okon story was at one of the magazine's editorial conferences where a Newswatch reporter, Bose lasaki, who was a niece to President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke about a "rumour" making the rounds to the effect that Gloria Okon had not died in detention but had been spirited out of the country. Mohammed claimed that Lasaki's story was dismissed off-hand but that she was asked to find out more about the rumour. Lasaki was alleged to have returned for the next editorial conference the following week and declared that there was no substance to the rumour. Mohammed alleged that Giwa was not at any of these meetings. The Ibrahim Babangida drug running angle was also called into question by revelations made by the embittered former head of the National Security Organization (NSO), Alhaji Mohammed Lawal Rafindadi. In 1985, following a request by the Supreme Military Council, the NSO under Rafindadi investigated Babangida and found him complicit of forgery and activities inimical to national security. This issue arose as a result of Babangida and his in-law, Mr Sunny Okogwu's interest in an arms manufacturing venture in Kaduna called Black Gold. The SMC, based on the NSO's findings slated Babangida for retirement.[21][22] The only witness to the events shortly before the bomb exploded, Mr Kayode Soyinka had alleged that the package had a label with the seal of the Nigerian President and also claimed that the label indicated that it was from the office of the president. However, no other witness has corroborated this claim, Giwa's 17-year-old son, Billy, who had delivered the package to Giwa has never corroborated this claim. Mr Soyinka's testimony about the events prior to and after the bombing have also been brought into question, there have been accusations made to the effect that he might have been the same person that detonated the bomb by remote control as he was not injured in the explosion.[23]

Mr Soyinka is also alleged to have given conflicting accounts of the events to the Police and media outlets, he is also accused of fleeing the country while investigations were ongoing.[23] To the accusation of fleeing the country, Soyinka has this to say in that his interview with The Nation (Saturday, 19 January 2013): "Dele was very close to his mother. He did not joke with her at all. It was an honour for me to have met her. The last time I saw her was at Dele's burial in their village near Auchi, in Edo State. I was there live with my wife contrary to the erroneous story of Babangida's government's mischief makers who tried to deceive the Nigerian people in order to exonerate the government from the assassination of Dele Giwa, saying that I had fled the country. They deliberately spread all kinds of falsehood, ignoring even newspaper reports and pictures of myself and my wife in attendance at the burial. And mind you, how could I have fled the country? My wife and children were not in Nigeria with me when the bomb exploded, they had to take the next available flight to Nigeria to join me. Yet, Babangida's men said I fled the country. And my family and I remained in the country throughout the whole period of the controversy and burial arrangement. We returned to London together through the former British Caledonian Airways, through Muritala Mohammed Airport. There was no way we could have left quietly. We were accompanied to and seen off at the airport by friends, including the Newswatch editors, and family. The airline people recognised us. Our two children were still small then. The air hostesses took them from us, played with them, and they were asking me if I was feeling better – knowing the trauma one must have been through in the past weeks, and took us straight and right inside the aircraft, even before checking in other passengers. Yet the Babangida men kept saying, even till today, that I fled the country. Can you imagine?"[citation needed]

Giwa's lawyer was also accused of prematurely accusing the government of Dele Giwa's murder thereby truncating the investigation into the case, Newswatch Magazine in an edition of 5 November 1986 disowned Fawehimni.[23]

The subsequent court cases instituted by Fawehinmi against the government to enable him try the case as a private prosecutor after the Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs. Eniola Fadayomi had refused to prosecute based on the evidence available were mostly unsuccessful. An excerpt of the Judgement by the then Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Candido Johnson reads thus "...Even if one considers the reasonableness of time, I would say that the incident that gave birth to the death of the late Dele Giwa is not only unique in its form but also complex and would require sufficient time to conduct detailed and balanced investigation, a report on which the appropriate authority would reasonably act. The timing here appears hasty and premature. It appears impulsive without giving reasonable time and chance for a detailed and balanced investigation into this sordid incident. In the circumstances and having regard to the review made above, it is my ruling that this (ex-parte) application is misconceived and it is therefore dismissed. Leave to apply for mandamus is hereby refused."[23]

Fawehinmi went on to the Supreme Court and got a favourable judgement which enabled him go back to the Lagos State High Court, this judgement also mandated the Justice Candido to recuse himself from the case and appoint another judge to hear the case. On 23 February 1988, Justice Longe ruled that the two security officers, Lt. Col Tunde Togun and Col. Haliru Akilu could not be tried for the murder of Dele Giwa. In his ruling Justice Longe averred among other things that,"...the Attorney general did not oppose the objection raised by counsel to the 'accused' persons, Chief Rotimi Williams, on the ground that the information was filed by private prosecutor (Chief Gani Fawehinmi) when the information had not been completed and especially when the 'INFORMATION IMPLICATED ONE OF THE PROSECUTION WITNESSES'(Kayode Soyinka)...the proof of evidence before the Court was mere HEARSAY…. Based on the evidence available before the court, it will be an abuse of the process of court to call the two security chiefs for trial. The information is therefore quashed accordingly."[23] Kayode Soyinka was represented in court by Kayode Sofola SAN, representing the chambers of Kehinde Sofola SAN, that succeeded to getting the court to rule as frivolous the reference to Soyinka being "implicated". The court also ordered that cost be paid Soyinka by the 'accused' persons.[citation needed]

In 2001, General Ibrahim Babangida refused to testify before a national human rights commission about the Giwa murder. Babangida, Hakilu and Togun went to court and obtained an order restraining the commission from summoning them to appear before it. The Chairman of the commission commented that the commission had the power to issue arrest warrants for the trio but decided against this "in the over-all interest of national reconciliation".[24][25]

In 2008 along with other activists such as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Ken Saro Wiwa, the Government of Nigeria named a street in the New Federal Capital Abuja after Dele Giwa.[26]