Nearly two years after the passing of Nigerian rapper Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, music executive and former label boss Afeez Fashola, aka Naira Marley, has shed more light on where he was and how he received the news of the singer’s death.
In a released tell-all interview uploaded to his YouTube channel, the Marlian Records founder disclosed that he was far from Nigeria when Mohbad died on September 12, 2023.
“We were in Amsterdam, in a restaurant, waiting for our food when someone just said Mohbad had died,” Marley recounted.
Initially, the rapper said he didn’t believe the report.
“I dismissed it, saying he was chasing clout to blow,” he added. However, fellow artiste Zinoleesky urged him to take the message seriously. Moments later, Marley logged onto Instagram and saw that Mohbad’s death was being attributed to an ear infection.
He claimed that shortly afterward, social media users began to shift the blame toward him. “Boom, on Twitter everybody just switched and started saying that Naira Marley, finally, you have killed him,” he said. “They started posting videos of the NDLEA issue, his fight with the ex-manager.”
The artist also alleged that blogs were being paid to push a narrative against him, even though he was not in the country at the time.
Since the rapper’s sudden death, Naira Marley and his associate, Sam Larry, have faced continuous public backlash, with many accusing them of bullying Mohbad prior to his passing. Although a coroner’s inquest was launched by Lagos State, skepticism remains among many Nigerians regarding Marley’s involvement.
The interview marks Marley’s latest attempt to clear his name in the ongoing public debate over the circumstances surrounding Mohbad’s death.
