The Middle Belt Forum, MBF, Sunday said the sudden demise of former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Deputy Governor, Obadiah Mailafia is a loss of a great voice in the struggle to emancipate Nigeria.
Its National President, Dr Bitrus Pogu, in his reaction in Makurdi, Benue State capital, said the vacuum created in the Middle Belt and the entire country by the death of Dr Mailafia would be very difficult to fill.
According to him, “the death of Dr Mailafia is a great loss to the Middle Belt and the whole of the country particularly at a time when we need voices like his; he is one of the people who could talk or fearlessly tell truth to power, we lost a patriot.
“His death has created a great vacuum that will be difficult to fill. Painfully while we were struggling along with our brothers in other parts of the country to ensure that Nigeria is restructured, we, some few months back also lost Yinka Odumakin and now it is Mailafia, it hurts.
“It’s a great loss to all of us and we are just praying that in spite of all odds that God will comfort the country and the family he left behind because we have lost a great voice not just in the Middle Belt but the entire country in the struggle for the emancipation of Nigeria.”
Vanguard News Nigeria