A Year After, Was Naira Marley’s EFCC Arrest A Blessing In Disguise? (READ)
By Segun Sanusi | 9jainsider.com
On 10th of May 2019, The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) arrested Azeez Fashola popularly known as Naira Marley, a day after his birthday.
Many are of the opinion that the arrest was made because of the “Am I a yahoo boy” song Naira Marley dropped prior to his arrest.
He was arrested alongside Zlatan, Gucci Branch, Biesloaded and Rahman Jago at Naira Marley’s Lagos residence
Naira Marley however argued that he has never done anything illegal with the laptop EFCC was investigating as he only upload music and video files with the laptop in a state hhe wrote upon his arrest
Few days later, Naira Marley fans held a protest at the EFCC headquarters in Lagos on May 18, 2019 agitating for the release of the music artiste.
The whole entertainment industry in Nigeria were in total shock as Naira Marley spent weeks in detention before he was allowed out of prison on bail with the case still open on 14th of june, 2019.
Before the arrest, Naira Marley was still an artiste who just came back from UK and hasn’t really gotten himself the perfect A-List position but as soon as he was arrested and news broke out, Naira Marley music career sprung up. Even while he was in prison, he was trending on twitter almost on a daily basis.
He released a song “Why” while he was in prison and the song discussed how some people wish him bad while hailing the real friends who stood by him.
Immediately after he released on bail, he dropped a smashing hit “Opotoyi” and “Soapy“, a song that narrates sexual immoralities in Nigeria prisons. He later shot a video for the song and it currently has 10Million views on YouTube.
He stole the show when he performed at Starboy Fest in o2Arena, London last year with a superb performance. Later in the year, He had his Marlian Fest concert on Christmas day at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos and it was sold out as expected with loads of artistes on standby to thrill the audience.
He previously had similar show at Ibadan which was also a sold out event.
He was also named 2019 “YouTube” most searched Nigerian music Artiste.
Aside all that, His social media followers has increased tremendously since his arrest. He currently has more than 300,000 YouTube subscribers, 1.2 Million twitter followers and 3.2M on IG.
He also own luxury houses in Lagos and other part of Nigeria and his car fleet includes a 2019 Bentley Continental, G Wargon and so on
Life after the arrest might have been very terrible during the first few days but do you think Naira Marley would have achieved this level of success had he not been arrested?
It’s safe to say that the arrest gave rise to a Naira Marley we never had. A Marlian president with new vibes and energy.
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