Ogun Ex-Majority Leader, Yinka Mafe dies while celebrating his 46th birthday

A former Majority Leader of Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Asiwaju Yinka Mafe is dead.

The DailyBells gathered that Mafe died while celebrating his 46th birthday on Tuesday, February 4 in Sagamu.

The Sagamu-born legal practitioner, it was learnt, began his birthday celebration with a prayer session conducted by both Muslims and Christians.

It was gathered that the former lawmaker and his guests later retired to his Tenth Planet Suites, Sagamu, for the birthday celebrations.

However, the celebrations turned sour when the celebrant started complaining of chest pain and later gave up the ghost.

Details of his death are still sketchy as of the time this report is being filed.

However, his close associates and political family, in a statement, said:

“We, SIA/PMB POLITICAL FAMILY painfully announce the death of our illustrious son, leader, brother, husband and friend, Former Majority Leader, Ogun State House of Assembly, Hon. Asiwaju Yinka Mafe, who passed away shortly after he complained of chest pain. Details of his burial shall be announced shortly. May His soul rest peace.”

Also reacting to the news of his passing away, the Ogun State chapter of the All Progressive Congress, in a statement signed by Tunde Oladunjoye, the Publicity Secretary, Ogun APC Caretaker Committee, described Mafe’s death as a shock.

The statement reads in part:

“Though the surrounding his death are still sketchy, our party however, has, indeed, lost a vibrant lawmaker, legal practitioner and consummate entrepreneur, known for his outspokenness, no matter where he finds himself.

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

“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.”

Before his death, Mafe was elected the Councillor of Ward 3 in Sagamu Local Government Legislative Council in December 1998, a term which ended in 2002.

He was elected as a member of the Ogun State House of Assembly in 2011 and became the Chairman House Committee on Education, Science and Technology; he was re-elected in 2015 as the lawmaker representing Sagamu 1 constituency.

Yinka Mafe was born on February 4, 1974, to the family of Chief Timothy Mafe and Mrs Lydia Mafe (now of blessed memory) in the local town of Emuren, a suburb of Sagamu, Remo.

He spent his early days in Warri, where he had his primary education and later at Igbudu Primary School, Warri, Delta State. He also attended Nana Primary School, also in Warri and once lived briefly in Lokoja where he was born.

He attended Hussey College, Warri for the beginning of his secondary education and later, Dom Domingos College, also in Warri from where he moved to the University of Benin where he got his law degree(Ll.b) from 1993-1998/99. He attended the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island, Lagos in 2000/2001 as a serving Councillor of Sagamu LG. Mafe was called to Nigerian Bar in May 2001.

Ashiwaju, as he is fondly called by his people, obtained a Masters Degree in International Business Law from the Cambridge University, England in 2006, where he later got his professional qualifications (College of Law London) as a lawyer in the UK.

He is survived by his wife and children