Groups Mourn Late Mailafia, Say He Didn’t Die a Free Man

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos, John Shiklam in Kaduna and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) have lamented the death of a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia.

They expressed their condolences in separate statements made available to THISDAY.
For SOKAPU, the late Mailafia, “didn’t die as a free man.”

In a phone interview with THISDAY, the spokesman of SOKAPU, Mr. Luka Binniyat revealed that the deceased had been in hiding following harassments by the Department of State Security Services (DSS), adding that the late Mailafia was taking refuge with Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State “because a few attempts had been made on his life”.

Binniyat said, “He has only two children, and they are in the UK. His wife comes in from time to time. He has been corresponding with us almost on weekly basis. When we have issues we seek for his advice; he was a big profile academic, and was one of our counselors.

“We never knew him as someone with any dilapidating health issue. So his death is quite curious to us. But no matter what happened, one thing cannot be taken away; he was harassed up and down by government, he was traumatised, he didn’t die as a free man; he died as somebody that was hiding from the state authority, he was always watching his back.
“Mailafia even had to resign from National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) where he was a top management staff.

“He died with a lot of intelligence that if it were a serious government, it would have used the information he had to solve some of the security issues in the land, probably because the government is truly not interested in solving the issues.”

Also speaking, President of MBF, Dr. Bitrus Pogu described Mailafia as, “a pillar, not only in the Middle Belt, but in the country as a whole. He was a man who spoke truth to power; a man who was bold and fearless in speaking out his mind on national issues, especially on insecurity and imbalances in this government.

“He will be severely missed because such role he played did not only help in emancipation struggles of Nigerians against domination, insurgencies and other vices, but his efforts have taken the discourse to international level. We will miss him because it will be difficult to fill such gap.”

Pogu said the true cause of his death had not been determined because there was a test conducted on him in the hospital, but the results have not been released before he died.

According to the MBF President, Dr. Mailafia attended a programme and came back some two days ago when he became ill and went to a hospital in Abuja, and was later referred to Gwagwalada hospital where he passed on.
“Tests were conducted on him but the results hadn’t been released when he passed on. It was hoped that the results would be out by Monday (today), but unfortunately, he didn’t live up to Monday.

“So the actual cause of his death has not been determined. He came into town (Abuja) well and hearty. It was in Abuja he started having fever, and he went to a hospital from where he was referred to Gwagwalada. So the cause of death has not been determined yet. He hadn’t be stabilised well pending when the result of the tests would come out, then he passed on. No postmortem has been conducted yet.”

Meanwhile, the ADC has decried the late Mailafia, who was its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections.
The National Chairman of the party, Mr. Ralph Nwosu in a statement yesterday described the former Deputy Governor of the CBN as a bold critic of injustice.
He said, “With heavy heart I announce the passing of Mailafia Obadiah, ADC Presidential candidate 2019, and Board of Trustee (BOT) member of our great party and a former CBN Deputy Governor.

“Mailafia a public intellectual, until his untimely and sudden death, he was a bold critic of injustices and senseless loss of lives under this government and champion of change for a new Nigeria.”
Nwosu prayed to God to give all ADC members the boldness and courage of Mailafia to continue the nation building journey in this deeply challenged country of ours.