I was in Amsterdam when Mohbad died-Naira Marley

Nigerian singer Naira Marley has finally spoken out about the death of his former signee, Mohbad, who died under mysterious circumstances on September 12, 2023. The incident sparked nationwide outrage and calls for justice across the country.

In the aftermath, public scrutiny focused heavily on Marley and his associate Sam Larry. Both were arrested in October 2023, along with other suspects, over allegations of involvement in Mohbad’s death. After spending over five weeks in detention, they were released on bail in November. In February, a Yaba magistrate court cleared Marley, Larry, Prime Boy, and Pere Babatunde, ruling that they had no case to answer concerning Mohbad’s death.

Marley revealed in a lengthy YouTube video released recently that he was in Amsterdam when Mohbad passed away and only learned about it through social media. Initially, he suspected it might be a publicity stunt orchestrated by Mohbad himself, only considering the news was true after seeing posts claiming the cause of death 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,” Marley said.

He emphasized that he had not seen Mohbad for approximately a year before his death and argued that a narrative was quickly crafted to target him personally, detracting focus from a proper investigation.

“People started accusing me and posting videos from the NDLEA incident, the fight he had with his manager on October 4, 2022,” he explained. “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 criticized the investigation, suggesting that the authorities should have focused on arresting everyone who was with Mohbad in the last 24 to 48 hours before his death, rather than targeting him based on old conflicts.

“They were posting old videos. If we were in a functioning system, they should have arrested everyone who was with him in the last 24 to 48 hours,” he added.