Yinka Mafe, ex-lawmaker, dies on 46th birthday

Yinka Mafe, immediate past majority leader of Ogun state house of assembly, is dead.

Mafe was said to have complained of chest pain after which he slumped and died on Tuesday evening — few hours after hosting a party to celebrate his 46th birthday at Emuren, his home town.

He reportedly visited inmates and warders at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Sagamu, before the birthday celebration which took place at Tenth Planet & Suites, Sagamu.

Born on February 4, 1974, the deceased was elected councillor of ward three in Sagamu local government council in December 1998.

He was elected as a member of the state assembly representing Sagamu 1 constituency in 2011 and became the chairman of the committee on education, science and technology.

He was re-elected in 2015.

Mafe vied for a house of representatives seat under the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in the 2019 election but lost; he then returned to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Reacting to his demise, Tunde Oladunjoye, publicity secretary, Ogun APC caretaker committee, said the party is “shocked” by Mafe’s death.

He added that the circumstances surrounding his death are still unclear.

“The party recalled that even when others remained in the deflated and defunct Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Yinka Mafe took a very bold and courageous step to return to APC,” he said.

“While the other defected and defeated members of defunct APM were still shadow-chasing and preoccupied with empty boasts, Mafe, less than a month after the election of Prince Dapo Abiodun, specifically on April 2, 2019 announced his return to APC on the floor of Ogun State House of Assembly.

“While commiserating with the wife, children and the entire members of the family of the deceased, and indeed the people of Sagamu 1 State Constituency, the APC prays that God will give them the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.”

The deceased, a lawyer, was called to the Nigerian bar in 2001.

His remains have been deposited at the mortuary of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu.