The Mohbad mob

On my way to work this week, I saw members of the #Justice for Mohbad movement doing a rally, protected by security operatives. Ironically, many were puffing clouds of marijuana smoke. Now, a video sent to me on WhatsApp shows two young men lamenting that “one Calabar boy, work for his oga. The oga no won settle am, na im he send people go kill am.” Gloss: “The boy worked as an apprentice under his boss, but the boss did not want to pay him his dues, so the boy wanted to leave; then his boss sent people to kill him.” Funny as this may sound, it actually mirrors the key underpinnings of the #Justice for Mohbad movement, which is largely driven by innuendoes, conjectures, clout chasing, and cancel culture.

The Mohbad crowd have not protested against the barbarities of nomadic herdsmen who have given Nigeria a prominent spot on the Global Terrorism Index, or the economic strangulation that trades a thousand naira for a dollar. You see, Mohbad was a star who sang about street gangs, fraudsters and prostitutes. The young man died, then Nollywood vermin sewed aso ebi, amassing fame and profiting from a family’s tragedy. They did not call on those with useful information to make them available to the security agencies; all they did was organize anti-Marley rallies as a prelude to a fake version of #End SARS, because their life depends on the glare of cameras and social media traffic. These “celebrities”, who will soon jump on the next social media scandal, are no more interested in justice than a dead dog. You need to see them bullying their juniors!

Is there any real issue in the Mohbad protest? Yes. Prior to his death, the 27-year-old alleged that personnel of the NDLEA, who had stormed the Lekki, Lagos house where he and other artistes under the Marlian label resided in February 2022, had hit him on the head with a baton and given him a strange substance to drink. And so upon his death, social media influencers hatched a conspiracy theory, namely that Naira Marley (who was abroad when the incident happened) had suborned the NDLEA men to molest Mohbad because the latter had opted out of the Marlian gang. In pursuing their case, they cited videos where the deceased complained of harassment, and the fact that he had indeed forwarded a petition to the police detailing alleged harassment by Naira Marley’s associates. The NDLEA however denied ever arresting the deceased.

Now, nearly ALL the national newspapers in the country reported Mohbad and Zinolesky’s arrest by the agency in February last year. However, during an interview conducted by Channels Television at the time, the NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, denied that Mohbad was one of the artistes arrested. His recent statement therefore checks out with his past statement. There is, however, a snag: the video of the arrest indeed shows Mohbad protesting what he and the other artistes called the invasion “without search warrant” by NDLEA personnel. So, the fundamental question that arises is this: if the NDLEA’s account is true, why was Mohbad, who was right there at the incident scene, protesting, not arrested that night?

I will leave this question as I address the antics of the protesters. First off, they claimed that Naira Marley bought over Buba Marwa’s NDLEA, the same agency which billionaire drug barons and police celebrity, Abba Kyari, could not buy over. Besides, it is on record that Naira Marley did indeed PROTEST the arrest of his artistes, specifically naming Mohbad and Zinolesky. Again, Naira Marley is not an ambassador of the NDLEA. As Femi Babafemi explained in August, “The decision by the agency to encourage Naira Marley, with over seven million followers, half the population of those who abuse drugs in Nigeria, use his platform share anti-substance abuse messages as against using same to promote and glamourize drug abuse with the dire consequence of misleading millions of Nigerian youths into their peril, is to create a balance between our drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.” I concur. If a known drug promoter decided to join the anti-drug effort, it would have been imprudent for the agency to rebuff his effort, because deterrence and reformation are at the heart of its mandate.

Since Mohbad died, his father, Pastor Joseph Aloba, has been treated like a criminal, panned for “hasty burial” of his son. Pretending to love the deceased more than his father, the Mohbad mob said Aloba should have embalmed the body or perhaps spread it under the sun, waiting for investigators when there was no report of police order stopping the burial. They even declared that the deceased should have been buried in Lekki, as if they would have borne the cost, and one individual tagged “Baale of Ikorodu” even accused him of conniving with the murderers. Pray, when was Pastor Aloba supposed to bury his son? How can the burial of an oku ofo (untimely dead) be delayed? By the way, what right has anyone to tell him where to bury his own son?? Indeed, prior to the exhumation of the body for autopsy, a group of clowns stood guard at the tomb, claiming they aimed to prevent Naira Marley’s boys taking the body away!

Then after the exhumation, horrendously illiterate statements were published on “fresh blood” being discovered in the grave, and that Mohbad was buried alive. Which forensic investigation determined this? It is well known that internal organs decompose after death, after which the body begins to bloat, with blood-containing foam leaking from the mouth and nose. But alas, we are dealing with clowns.

Sadly, an otherwise admirable cop, threw decorum to the dogs and all but pronounced Naira Marley guilty of murder. She wrote on her instagram page: “When I singlehandedly spoke up against this character and imminent danger it portrays, I was bashed both inside and out, a danger not curtailed will become ‘hydraheaded’, my heart is with the departed and everything that represents him.” No, you can’t really mean that. Mohbad, apart from his lewd lyrics, was involved with gangster life and hard drugs. Death does not, and cannot, excuse his poor choices, including of association and music style. The post is decidedly perverse. If Naira Marley is guilty, this must be proven with hard evidence, not social media speculation.

Many detestable individuals are chasing clout with Mohbad’s death, assuming the role of private investigator, jury and judge. If mob rule and cancel culture take root in this land, many innocent people are going to be burnt alive, with retaliations taking extremely ugly dimensions.

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