Obadiah Mailafia, former CBN Deputy Governor, is dead

Obadiah Mailafia, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), is dead.

Details of his death are still sketchy but sources told Daily Trust that he died after a brief illness.

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A fierce critic of the Buhari administration, Mailafia contested the 2019 presidential election under the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

He worked at the African Development Bank (AFDB) and served as CBN deputy governor between 2005 and 2007.

Born on December 24, 1956 in Randa village, Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State, his father Baba Mailafia Gambo Galadima, an evangelist with the Evangelical Reformed Church of Central Nigeria.

Mailafia was raised as a missionary child in a multiracial environment.

His parents later transferred to Murya, Lafia, in Nasarawa State, where he grew up.

He started his education at Musha Sudan United Mission School from 1964 to 1969 and proceeded to Mada Hills Secondary School, Akwanga, Nasarawa, from 1970 to 1974. He later proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he bagged a first-class degree in Economics.

Although he had made his mark as a technocrat, Mailafia became very famous in the country after he granted an interview where he said he was informed that a governor was the commander of Boko Haram.

The Department of State Services (DSS) had invited him but he was released after being grilled for hours.