Abidemi Faboye, the proprietor and principal of Abifab College, Ikorodu, Lagos State, the secondary school the late singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba, aka Mohbad, attended, has shared some fond memories about him.
Faboye noted that Mohbad wanted to study Accounting, and he had good results in school having also improved in mathematics and financial accounting.
In an interview with The PUNCH, the former school principal said he was surprised when he was told that Mohbad had become a member of the Marlian group, and he doubted if Mohbad “could cope with such group.”
He said, “I knew him when he enrolled in my school in 2013. His elder sister, Blessing, also graduated from the school in 2013. He was brought from a public school, and he was a quiet boy. He was tall and slim. It was years after secondary school that he added weight.
“He was 17 years old, and was a bit more mature than some of his classmates. He wrote the National Examination Council senior secondary certificate exam in 2015, and made his papers in one sitting. He spent two years in the school, and there was a transformation in his life. He always called me, ‘daddy’. I always wanted my students to call me ‘Abifab’ or ‘Mr Abifab’, but he found it difficult to call me that.
Whenever Promise (Ilerioluwa) called me ‘daddy’, I would tell him to call me ‘Abifab’; and he would just laugh.
“He was in commercial class, and he had very good results. I would not say he was an excellent student, but he was above average. He was an easygoing person, who only played occasionally. He never made trouble.
“He wanted to study Accounting, and I told him there was no way he could do that without mathematics. So, he improved in mathematics and financial accounting.
“When I heard that he was a member of the Marlian group, I was surprised. I doubted if he could cope with such group. Although he was mature, I felt he must have mixed with a few others who joined the record label. I prayed that God would be with him, because after he left school, we did not communicate regularly.
“Many of us, including the teachers who taught him, were surprised. When we heard about Imole, we were all surprised. I was not familiar with afrobeats music, until one day, my daughter told me, ‘Do you know Uncle Promise is now Mohbad?’ I took my phone and chatted with him via Messenger. He then gave me his number. His dad is a carpenter, and as a student, he often assisted his dad. He learnt carpentry from his father, who is also a pastor.”
The former principal added, “If people like us were aware that he had problems with his record label, we would have spoken to them, and I believe God would make him listen. Not all musicians are gangsters.
There are some musicians who are not gangsters, and he was one of such people. When he was having those issues, he was not talking to the real people. He should have involved his mother and father, because he was raised by his stepmother. His mother is alive, but she is separated from the dad. His father had a second wife. He made moves to bring his mum to his father, and I think he achieved that before death came.”
