Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba with musical alias, Mohbad, died in questionable circumstances on September 12, 2023. But not without leaving behind an indelible imprint on the entertainment turfs of the country.
His death and suspicious haste of burial, within 24 hours that it happened have created intense debates that might take some time to diffuse. Not even an autopsy to determine the cause of his death by the Lagos Police Command is cooling frayed nerves with the public waiting, with bated breath, for its forensic outcome to be made public.
The notorious Marlian Records label, owned by an equally notorious Birtish-Nigerian gangster musician, Azeez Fashola that goes with the sobriquet Naira Marley signed him on as musical artiste.
Mohbad entered into an innocent musical contract with the notorious record label as a promising lad but forcefully disengaged with physical bruises and psychological tortures that he never recovered from until death came knocking on his door.
Naira Marley, his record label owner with a track record of rascally encounters with the British Metropolitan Police and Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), ostensibly out of jealousy, did everything inhuman and criminal, to make life unbearable for the highly talented late musical youngster.
Despite an avalanche of evidence showing that Mohbad did a lot to draw the attention of especially the police to threat to his life and the need to come to his rescue, no single arrest was made or a strand of investigation initiated if only to show systemic sensitivity to what he was going through.
Naira Marley, his traducer-in-chief was going about on the social media calling Mohbad unprintable names fit only for psychotic patients. He used his attack dogs to hound and assault Mohbad till death with the police looking the other way. Mohbad’s avoidable plight was not helped by his hopelessly insensitive parents and family members. They never initiated any tangible efforts to rescue their son from Naira Marley’s deadly fang.
Theliberationnews bemoaned the avoidable loss of this great musical talent. But for the crass insensitivity of a disoriented security system of the country, he would still be living today and churning out musical lyrics with the potential of selling to the world, the creative gifts that abounds in the country.
Whatever the outcome of the forensic examination conducted on his corpse is, it is equally important that all those officially accused of having inflicted pain on him while alive, through bullying and criminal assaults, must face the music.
Those people that made Mohbad’s musical life miserable must not be allowed to continue to relish in their condemnable iniquities against this creative soul, despite his being no more.
Theliberationnews believes that doing this by the Nigerian state is the only way to assure the populace and restore their trust in our system that after all, any evil done to man by man or by the system will be conscientiously redressed by the authorities.
Theliberationnews knows that the way Mohbad’s case is finally resolved shall determine the premium placed on human lives and welfare by the Nigerian state. The world is watching.