How former Ogun lawmaker, Yinka Mafe died of cardiac arrest on his 46th birthday

‘It kills me sometimes, how people die.’ These words of Australian writer, Markus Zuzak, readily came to mind, when the sudden and frightful death of Honourable Yinka Mafe, the immediate past Majority Leader of the Ogun State House of Assembly, came to the fore.

Reports suggest that Hon. Mafe died on Tuesday night, a few hours after his 46th birthday celebration, and his lifeless body has since been deposited in the morgue of Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Ogun State.

Those around him in the morning of his birthday, when he visited prisoners and warders of the Sagamu Correctional Center, and the lavish birthday reception, held at the Tenth Planet and Suites, Sagamu, revealed that he was full of life and vigour, without any sign of ill health, throughout the celebrations that had his family, friends and political associates in attendance. Unfortunately, it was his last party, as he died of a fatal cardiac arrest shortly after complaining of a serious chest pain later the night of Tuesday, February 4, 2020.

  Late Asiwaju (Honourable) Yinka Mafe was born on February 4th, 1974. He was a lawyer by profession. Mafe was first elected a Councilor of Ward 3 in the Sagamu Local Government Legislative Council in December, 1998, a term which ended in 2002. He was also elected as a member of the Ogun State House of Assembly in 2011, and became the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Science and Technology; was re-elected into the House in 2015, representing Sagamu 1 Constituency of Ogun State. He was the immediate past Majority Leader. As you read this, his immediate family has been thrown into an impenetrable darkness of bereavement and deep mourning, and they are too grieved and shocked to think about his burial arrangements for now.

Meanwhile, the political landscape is also mourning. Tunde Oladunjoye, Publicity Secretary, Ogun State APC Caretaker Committee, while commiserating with the wife, children and the entire members of the family of the deceased, “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, in less than a month after the election of Prince Dapo Abiodun, specifically on April 2nd, 2019, announced his return to APC on the floor of Ogun State House of Assembly.”