Nigerian singer Naira Marley has broken his silence on the death of Mohbad, recounting his experience and addressing the controversy surrounding the late singer’s demise.
He revealed that he was out of the country when Mohbad passed, describing the news as a shock and expressing frustration over the false narratives that followed.
“Someone among us said, Mohbad dead. I looked at him, I said, it’s a lie man, he wants to blow again. Exactly what I said, it’s a lie. I said it’s a lie, he wants to blow again. I didn’t even bother. Zeno looked at me straight away. I said, ah, … Like, people should know what they will be saying, you know. I’m like, ah, come on, man, people know we’re not in Nigeria, obviously. Oh, I just said people know we’re not in Nigeria. I went on Instagram. I can see InstaBlog saying Mohbad died of air infection. Okay, I’m like, air infection? All of us saying, was he dead? I’m like, they’re lying, man. Air infection, lying. How can you die of air infection? I’m still saying that,” Naira Marley explained.
He described how misleading content online further fueled confusion: “Twitter, boom, boom, boom. Nagamali, finally you’ve killed him. What? Is it a joke? Is it dead for you? But immediately I’m saying they started posting videos from the NDLEA incident. They started posting videos from the fight he had with, on the 4th of October 2022, he had with his manager. They started posting videos from there. Why? I don’t understand. Is that what killed him? You said he died on the… 12th of September, 2023. You’re posting videos. So I know, I can see already that there’s someone paying the blogs to try changing the narrative from Haley. I’m like, what’s happening here? And the public, really, they’re falling for it. I wasn’t in the country. I can show you my passport stamp.”
He went on to explain how the incident affected him personally: “After we, let me not jump the story. So, it’s still in the restaurant, they’re blaming me, everything. You know, jump in the car, let’s go away. We’re going to Amsterdam because I was planning to shoot the video. But now we can’t even shoot the video, but we still need to go. So we drove, went to Amsterdam. Can’t even have fun anymore, can’t even shoot the video. Just chilling. Not even chilling, just… I was upset and sad. We didn’t even have time to mourn because of people blaming us for what we didn’t do. So I didn’t really get time to mourn him. Sometimes I tried… Even when I mourned him, there was a message saying I killed him. I didn’t even get… I was sad. I was trying to mourn him. I didn’t get to mourn him properly.”
Naira Marley also addressed videos that circulated online, which he claimed were being used to misrepresent events: “The person hold videos to try make you look like. But if we’re in a working country, they’re going to arrest everybody that was in the house with him. In the last 24 hours, 48 hours. They have no reason to arrest me, mate. Mate, I don’t understand. I was not in the country, I was out of the country. You can see with the stamps, you can see with the videos, I have videos. I have lots of things, but that was it from then, it got serious. Samlari video came up, that video came up, that video Samlari and my body, my body. My first time seeing that video was when we all saw the video. I’m like, what the hell was this? But I wasn’t fast to judge like everybody. I knew that video was not on that day because Samlagi was not in Nigeria too. Sam Larry traveled out of Nigeria. He was in Dubai, Kenya, Paris country. That’s what made me ask questions. Normally I was really angry like, ah, what? That’s what made me ask questions like, ah, Samlari, what’s up? He said nothing happened. He just saw him. He was explaining something. He said he saw him. Someone told him he was there. He went there. I don’t want to speak for him, but I’m just saying. He said he went there. And he saw him, he said he wants to collect his money. He said he tapped the chair. But I didn’t touch him. I looked at the video again. He didn’t touch him for real. But I can already see they’re posting my videos. So I’m thinking, why are they posting this video now? Did he die there? I mean, what? That’s not what killed him. So I have to ask questions. I’m like, okay, what happened?”
