Former majority leader of Ogun assembly dies few hours after 46th birthday

The immediate-past Majority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Yinka Mafe, has died few hours after celebrating his 44th birthday.
The circumstances surrounding his death remain sketchy as at the time of filing this report.
The politician and lawyer was born on February 4, 1974, and was said to have celebrated his birthday earlier in the day.
Sources said late in the night, he complained of chest pain, a development which suddenly led to his untimely death
Mafe started his political journey as a councillor for Ward 3 in Sagamu Local Government Legislative Council in December 1998 until 2002. He was elected as a member of the state House of Assembly in 2011 and became the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology. He was re-elected in 2015 under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In a statement by its Caretaker Committee Publicity Secretary, Tunde Oladunjoye, the ruling party said it has 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.”
A former Minister of Steel, Sarafa Isola, in a tribute lamented the loss of Mr Mafe. He described the deceased as “a forthright, urbane, dependable, loyal, brilliant, compassionate, educated and highly-exposed man of the people.
“The mystery about death is not knowing when, where and how the inevitable would happen. Yorubas, in our rich cultural heritage, capture it as ‘ Oku n sukun oku, akasoleri n sukun ara won’, literally espousing the inevitability of death. We all attend burials but the sermons are usually lost on us,” Mr Ishola stated.
“The essence of life and death is in the motto of Boys Scout – Be prepared. We should be prepared to die the next second. Life’s journey can be likened to a bus trip where passengers embark and disembark at their respective destinations. Death is certainly the end of human life’, the former minister said.

…Amosun, Akinlade express shock over his death

Former Governor of Ogun State, Sen. Ibikunle Amosun and his political ‘son’, Hon. Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade have expressed shock over the demise of Hon. Yinka Mafe.
The duo of Amosun and Akinlade described the sudden death of the former lawmaker as a great loss to Remo and the All Progressives Congress family in Ogun State.
Akinlade, who is yet to come to terms with the passing of Mafe, said, “until his demise, he was a loyal, trusted, dependable and dogged ally of Hon. Adekunle Akinlade and Senator Ibikunle Amosun political family in Ogun.”
In a statement made available to newsmen by his Spokesperson, Akinlade said, “Words failed me in expressing the shock I felt when the news broke that Asiwaju Yinka Mafe was dead. He was our friend, our brother and a very loyal ally in our political sojourn”.
“K’átó r’érin ó digbó, k’átó r’?´f?`n ó d?`dàn. This is really an irreparable loss and it breaks my heart that we’re mourning this great leader, friend and brother at his prime.”
Akinlade prayed God to be with the families and friends Mafe left behind; saying “may God grant them the fortitude to bear the colossal and irreparable loss.