Naira Marley, the Nigerian singer, has broken his silence for the first time, detailing how he learnt of the death of his former signee Mohbad.
Mohbad died under mysterious circumstances on September 12, 2023, sparking nationwide outcry and widespread demands for justice from fans and fellow musicians alike.
In the aftermath, public scrutiny fell heavily on Marley, born Azeez Fashola, and his associate Sam Larry.
In October 2023, Marley and Larry, alongside other suspects, were arrested over allegations that they were involved in the death of Mohbad. They were, however, released on bail in November of the same year after spending over five weeks in detention.
In February, a Yaba magistrate court cleared Marley, Larry, Prime Boy, and Pere Babatunde, ruling they had “no case to answer” in connection with Mohbad’s death.
In a lengthy YouTube video released on Tuesday evening, Marley, the head of Marlian Music, revealed that he was in Amsterdam when Mohbad passed away and only learnt about it through social media.
The music executive said he thought it might be a publicity stunt orchestrated by Mohbad himself to gain attention.
Marley said he only began to consider it might be true when he saw a post from a blogger claiming the cause was an ear infection.
“I saw Instablog posted that he died of an ear infection. I said ‘how can he die of ear infection’. We were still saying that when posts began to flood Twitter,” he said.
The hitmaker emphasised that he had not seen Mohbad for approximately a year before his death. He also argued that a specific narrative was quickly crafted to target him, diverting attention from a proper investigation.
“People started accusing me and posting videos from the NDLEA incident, the fight he had with his manager on the 4th of October 2022,” he said.
“I called Zino and we drove to Amsterdam. We could not shoot the video anymore. We did not even have time to mourn Mohbad properly because people were blaming us for what we did not do.”
Marley also criticised the investigation, suggesting that in a more efficient system, the focus would have been on “arresting everyone that was with him in the last 24 to 48 hours,” rather than targeting him based on past conflicts.
“They were posting old videos. If we were in a working country, they were supposed to arrest everyone who was with him in the last 24 hours, 48 hours,” he added.
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