On Sunday, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia died in an Abuja hospital.
According to Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Mailafia, who took refuge in Makurdi, Benue state, following alleged persistent harassment by the Department of State Services (DSS), fell sick and was rushed to hospital.
He was pronounced dead on Sunday.
The former deputy governor, who was the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2019 election, was a known government critic and had advocated for public sector and exchange rate reforms.
Mailafia was born on December 24, 1956, in the Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
He later graduated top of his class at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1978 with a B.Sc degree.
Mailafia was appointed deputy governor of CBN in 2005 from the African Development Bank (AfDB) where he served as the chief economist responsible for Strategic Planning and Corporate Reporting.
He has consistently taken on the Muhammadu Buhari-led government over the activities of some killer herdsmen in Nigeria.
Mailafia had on September 14, 2020, cried out that his life was in danger, saying strange persons were stalking him.
Speaking after he was interrogated for a third time by the DSS over his claim that a governor from the North was the leader of Boko Haram, he had said, “But if I have (sic) my way I would have put it in better language, and I have no way of corroborating some of these things, I heard it and I could have followed them into their camps to confirm because I might not come back to tell the story, so that is the reality.
“I have indicated that I have reason to believe that my life has been in danger. I have no conclusive proof but I get threats, I get calls. Where I was staying, on Thursday, I saw some strange people at the gate trying to break in. I jumped the fence and escaped because I don’t know who they are.”
Video of Repentant Bandits Named One Northern Governor As Boko Haram Commander In Nigeria —Mailafia
