By: Taofik Jimoh (JAAT)
It looked like the graphic design was simultaneous targed at me as everywhere I surfed on Facebook and WhatsApp had his image. Some wrote personalized captions and others used a caption composed for the purpose. Whilst I did not personally know him, everyone around me however seemed to. I nevertheless decided to write a news story on it. We could not say whose efforts would make him be found.
Yusuf Mubarak, alias Authority, had been missing and unreachable since the night of Wednesday, 13th of September, 2023, around 9:40 PM. His disappearance was noticed on Thursday, September 14. The graphic said he was last seen at Federal Secretariat Axis, Fate Road, Ilorin, Kwara State. Since then, all efforts to locate his whereabouts had been abortive. Phone numbers were provided as contacts to contact for whoever had any information on him.
Sadly, he was found/confirmed dead on Saturday, September 16.
For onlookers, the climax of these was neither his disappearance or his death, but the reactions that trailed (and keep trailing) the occurrences.
POLITICAL PATRONAGE
The Kwara State Government released a statement on the same Saturday condoling with his family and friends, adding that “no resources should be spared to get justice for Mubaarak and his family. We charge the security agencies to cast their nets as widely as possible to answer all pending questions around his painful death.”
The Kwara State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) followed suit. It also decried resurgence of cult-killings in Ilorin.
“(PDP) has described the death of 27-year old promising young Kwaran , Yusuf Mubarak as an irreparable loss to the state and a call for concern over resurgence of cult Killings , hooliganism and gangterism and violence in the state capital.
“In our mourning state, we strongly condemned the unfortunate resurgence of cult Killings and gang violence across the city of Ilorin , an issue that had long been forgotten before 2019 . This cold-blooded murder of Mubarak, by suspected cultists is a sad reminder of the severe damage that this menace is inflicting on our state
“In Kwara state, cult killings are on the rise and criminal gangs have become bolder. Killing, maiming and destroying property of rival gang members and innocent citizens alike. This is not to even talk of banditry and kidnappings that have put all rural dwellers in Kwara under serious fear and siege and with the government turning deaf ear to public outcry.”
The PDP went on to appeal to Mallam Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq “to return home from Abuja, where he seems to have relocated the kwara state capital, so he can focus more on the serious business of governance that is already suffering serious negligence.”
This was an obvious political jab at Gov Abdulrazaq, who is the Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). PDP went on to remind him that he was not the first Kwara Governor to become NGF Chairman; a position former Senate president and Kwara Governor, Abubakar Bukola Saraki had.
These two were followed by different press releases from Kwara political players; the latter trying to outdo the former.
CULT-KILLING OF ARMED ROBBERY?
Mubarak Authority was said to have been found with a gun wound. People didn’t even no more information before jumping into conclusions that he was a cultist, affiliated with some cultists and/or get himself killed in a supremacy battle. What started as whispers generated into debates and arguments on social media. A friend posted (later deleted) it on Facebook and there were many people going back and forth in the comment section. A female friend who claimed she spoke to the deceased almost beat me online for telling her Yusuf Mubarak might be a victim of circumstances.
Mubarak’s absence was first noted in the early hours of Thursday, September 14, 2023. His last known whereabouts were the police headquarters and Hajia Modibbo Kawu’s house. After leaving the police headquarters to intercede for some people, Mubarak went with Hajia Modibbo-Kawu to her private residence in Government Residential Area (GRA) in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, from where he took a commercial bike to head home.
He reportedly engaged a commercial Okada rider for a prearranged fee of 1,200 naira. Unfortunately, they encountered armed robbers who had ambushed passersby along Unity Road, near the United Secondary School fence. Remarkably, the Okada rider survived the ordeal but sustained severe head injuries and is currently undergoing treatment. The armed robbers confiscated their phones and other possessions after assaulting them with a firearm. In his attempt to escape, Mubarak was tragically shot in the head. The armed robbers reportedly fled the scene with their stolen phones and both motorcycles. His death, according to this narration, was an armed robbery gone south.
Undoubtedly, Authority’s death is shrouded in mysteries. It seems a group holds on to cultism narrations, and the other holds on to the armed robbery. Each holds on its narration as the truth.
Almost everyone has an opinion on his death. Dr Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, whose house the deceased was coming from on the fateful day, was fried in a submission published by The National Pilot. Mubarak was a member of his wife’s (Saadat Modibbo Kawu) media campaign team during her 2022 House of Representatives ambition.
The Mubarak’s lifeless body was found last Saturday and his remains were entrusted to the Omosebi Mortuary in Ilorin. On the same day (Saturday), Mubarak’s body was retrieved and laid to rest in accordance with Islamic rites.
On Monday, September 18, 2023, another unsigned statement resurfaced by “Friends of Mubarak Authority”. The friends emphasize that Yusuf Mubarak was neither affiliated with any cult group nor involved in any cult-related confrontation, that his shocking demise resulted from a harrowing armed robbery incident.
Hands are crossed as we wait for the Kwara State Government to unravel the mysteries. We wait!
Taofik Adekunle Jimoh, alias JAAT, is a lecturer at The Polytechnic Ojoku, Kwara State.
