The death of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, known professionally as MohBad has continued and will continue to generate interests amongst various Nigerians because of the sudden way the light of his life was switched off.
The unfortunate death was so devastating that it got innumerable lots adding their voices in condemnation of the former label owner Naira Marley for causing the death of the promising lad.
There is no iota of doubt in this plain fact that, it is very normal for people to feel awful because Imole, not only looked and acted innocent, he was just too young to die at an unripe age of 27. He embarked on a journey of no return at a time when his glory was just set to sit majestically on the throne of multidimensional success. A youngster who had a unique style that was totally different from the regulars that takes up our spaces daily.
It is also evident that many see Imole as someone who cried, albeit, silently for help but couldn’t get it until he finally bade the world goodbye. So, emotions are in right order in this particular case.
However, no matter how touchy this matter could be, we should not be timid or afraid to say it the way it is.
No one is saying Mohbad should not get justice over his untimely death if the culprit is eventually fished out, but the need to apply caution to this issue before pronouncing someone guilty, should be greatly considered.
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I won’t be the one to make excuses for Naira Marley or Sam Larry, who are the main suspects if we have to go by the decision of online judges and justices.
Personally, I do not have any relationship with any of them (NM & SL) and I am not in any way looking forward to meeting them in person. In fact, if any of them (is) or even the two are discovered to have a hand in Mohbad’s death, they should be served hot justice immediately without any delay. Both written and unwritten laws merge on the same page over the killing of another soul that stipulate death also as punishment.
But I feel there is a need for us all to take that necessary precaution and wait for the findings of the state before the ‘guilty as charged’ pronouncement is placed on anyone.
As bad as the death is, I’ve seen many who became overnight ‘Voltrons’ who jumped onto the scene to be heard over Imole. Those who don’t know him from Adams but based their judgements on the videos that emanated from the archive became overnight defenders of the world; those who only read a narrative without doing any checks before dishing out the retribution for the suspected murderer.
The only thing that remains constant aside change is the truth; no matter how lies fly around, truth will one day catch up with it. And I believe with the steps taken by the compassionate governor of the state of aquatic splendour and his commissioner of police, truth couldn’t hide for so long before it will be found.
To many, who now became emergency advocates, Mohbad only became a saint to them when the oxygen, nature blessed him with, was no more. Many of them who are shouting crucify Naira Marley, crucify him, never knew or bothered to know the kind of lifestyle the young lad lived before the dreaded unwanted visitor met with him.
The online warriors should not get me wrong here, because they may come up with their usual narrative of ‘killing’ whoever they chose even without fact with their keyboards and phones.
I am fully aware for sure that everyone deserves a free life devoid of threats and bullying that Imole was subjected to while alive, only because he had a disagreement with his former label boss.
I am also in the know that there is absolutely no one who deserves to live a life of paranoia that Imole lived based on the videos that were released so far. So, it is definitely not out of place to see people reacting the way they have been for the past few days after his death was pronounced.
My only concern here is that, why are the social media judges not looking at any other direction instead of standing solely on the unverified ‘fact’ that it was the former boss and company that killed him?
In controversial murder cases like this, everyone around him, especially those around him in his last 48 hours should be the suspect, not leaving out those who have threatened or bullied him before.
Aside those around him in the last hours, why can’t these mob that are getting ready to kill Naira Marley investigate the type of injection the emergency ‘Nurse Muyiwa’ (auxiliary nurse) administered on him before he gave up the ghost? At least, it was reported that he complained of ringing ear before he beckoned on the nurse to come to his aid. What about the doctor that attended to him in that last minutes?
What even could have caused the ringing of ear? What was his medical history before now? All these and many more should be checked before deciding what or who killed him.
Most times in our clime, especially my Yoruba clan, we are always comfortable with who killed rather than what killed.
On my own part, as soon as it was reported that black Tuesday night that he died and ringing of ear was what he complained about before the injection came, I quickly became friendly once again with google and after a little search, I got a clue from that platform that it (ear ringing) could be triggered by a very high blood pressure. Though, this like every other reasons remains in the realm of conjecture, but anyone who truly know how extremely dangerous high blood pressure is, will know that adding perilous volume of alcohol and hard drugs to it , is like inviting Asril (angel of death) to come on an unholy visit.
We should not allow emotions to cover our sense of reasoning because anything could have happened that night. Most videos that are being thrown around on social media about the fights and harassment of Mohbad are not new. Some are even at the beginning of the quarrel with his boss.
And these are the evidences the mobs are counting on to crucify Naira Marley.
There is no doubt that some are genuinely touched by the death of Imole because of the story of struggle in his short lived life even in the midst of stardom, but some others are just opportunists who saw a good way to give a dog a bad name in order to hang the dog.
The story of the night he went to perform in Ikorodu has it that Mohbad was extremely high before and after the show. At least, if we have to take into account what his ‘best friend’ who was with him till he breathed his last said. At first, the friend was accused of hitting Mohbad with a diabolical ring by the internet mob that they claimed, was given to him by Naira Marley and company when they had a quarrel that night. But, the young man came out in a video to say he was only cautioning Mohbad because he was excessively high that night.
No one prays to lose such a promising child like that and in such circumstance, but the need to sanitise the minds of our youth is something that should be on the front burner.
The way these youths including Mohbad abuse hard drugs and alcohol is on an alarming rate and should be discouraged in all ways.
They have become what Olamide Baddo, the musician, referred to as ‘science students’ with the ability to mix all types of various banned substances just to get high.
Before Mohbad’s marriage with Marlian, he himself wrote in a song that:
……….”Daddy gather money make I go poly,
I go poly I no go class,
I don dey do yahoo,
I don dey take Banku”……………..
This means that Mohbad, like other errant growing youth, embraced a life of drugs and chasing after unlawful wealth in the name of yahoo yahoo.
This is not to condemn him, but to mirror a society that’s gradually moving from normalcy to abnormality.
This is just my own little way of appealing to parents out there that we should help our children from moving completely off the track of sanity because of this unholy search for ‘highness’ and illegal monies. 
In all these, if there is something that is crystal clear now, Mohbad did not only shine like a bright star, he is shinning even brighter in death.
Adieu, great lyrical soldier.
Kunle Rasheed is a Lagos based media personality and author.
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