By Eric Elezuo
About a year ago, a never-to-forget life occurrence happened to the self styled Marlian president, Naira Marley, whose real name is Afeez Fashola: He was arrested by the anti-corruption agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
On May 10, 2019, just a day after “Am I A Yahoo Boy” was released, the anti-graft agency announced that it had arrested and charged the singer to court on an 11 count charge of advance fee fraud popularly called ‘Yahoo-Yahoo‘.
After spending 14 days behind bars, the singer was released after perfecting his bail conditions as proposed by Justice Nicolas Oweibo. It should be noted that Naira Marley might have faced a 7 years sentence if he was found guilty of the charges.
There and then, his career blossomed as not a few people sympathized with him, and wanted to feel the music that made EFCC picked him up. It was at this point that the number of his followers skyrocketed, prompting the creation of the Marlian group. The Marlian craze also affected his friends, Zlatan, Rahman Jago, Biesloaded and Gucci-Branch.
“Personally, I believe that Naira Marley has enjoyed more positive benefits due to the EFCC issue than the negative effects,” a fan was quoted as saying on Naijaloaded
Consequently, when the history of Naira Marley’s stardom is written, the EFCC will likely have a dedicated page for the good reasons.
