What is there to gain financially from killing him, if his previous business was gutted by regulatory changes?
The killer was evidently belonging to a highly capable skillset, and I'm extrapolating that they very nearly got away with his body in tow, and nobody would've been the wiser.
Could they not have kidnapped him and ransomed the company? If there's financial qualms on the board, I just don't understand why they'd just kill him then. If they went to deliveries, does that mean other delivery couriers are to be scrutinized?
Maybe he was involved with something dirty?
If it was a state agent of Nigeria that is responsible, idk, that'd be geopolitical suicide, putting hits out on private entrepreneurs across national borders...
Of course, had they gotten away, it may have seemed as though he just vanished, which I suppose is the ideal scenario for a state-sanctioned killing.
Ugh. This is beyond horrible all the way around.
It's possible that he might have taken an investment from someone that does not take failure/underdelivery as an answer. Or that Gokada's continued existence pissed off someone that intended the company to go under. It could also possibly be much more personal than that - there are many people who are wealthy enough to order such a hit with relative impunity (as long as they remain in Nigeria - our justice system and infrastructure is frankly not the greatest). It could also have nothing to do with Nigeria at all; he had business ventures and personal affairs elsewhere.
It's all speculation at this point and I just hope whatever it is doesn't crush the company. Gokada employs a thousand riders but beyond that it's helped so many small businesses grow and thrive especially during this period; there's a huge informal vendor culture in Lagos that's enabled by companies like this.
Regarding infrastructure, my point is that it's far easier for someone to disappear from the eye of law enforcement here than in many other countries.
There are some people you just don't want to owe money to. I'm not speculating on if that was the case here, just that in the US, that sort of thing is the realm of movies. Elsewhere in the world (and also parts of the US) that still the reality of borrowing large sums of money.
As you pointed out, business in these countries isn't clean and clear as it is in most countries HN'ers live in.
I saw crazy shakedowns in Northern Africa when I briefly lived there. I wouldn't doubt the same to be seen in other countries.
Saudi Arabia seems to be doing fine last I checked.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/nyregion/dismembered-body...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey%E2%80%93United_States...
There isn't a fundamental ideological divide, everyone is just jockeying for a few more square-meters of this or that.
That "small, neighboring state" is a №2 state in NATO
Devil's devil's advocate - the motivation for the killing doesn't need to be "rational" or make sense from our perspective. It could be pathological, it could be revenge, who knows?
Except they would have footage of two people going into the apartment (one person apparently wearing a ninja outfit), and only one person leaving.
That could have been a tipoff that something was askew.
It doesn't have to be that complicated.
"The killer was evidently belonging to a highly capable skillset," - no, it's not skill, it's just the diabolical will to actually do such a thing. Depending on circumstances, there can be a lack of evidence ... and that's that.
It may be as simple as being the member of the board another member is displeased with. Not suggesting that, just saying sometimes your very existence is a liability to others.
> If it was a state agent of Nigeria that is responsible, idk, that'd be geopolitical suicide, putting hits out on private entrepreneurs across national borders
When in Rome....
It's a power move. Putin does it too.
Just as much as this financial or business hitman speculation.
Its all happened in NYC. Chopped up into bags sounds like cartel or organized, it happened to OneCoin promoters in Mexico this month too. But we dont know yet for this case.
The chance is part of the rush.
The CCTV footage would seem to make those first two somewhat less likely:
"One of the law enforcement officials said a surveillance camera had captured video of Mr. Saleh in the building’s elevator with another person who was wearing a black suit and black mask."
"On the video, the elevator door opens and Mr. Saleh goes into the apartment, the official said. The masked person follows directly behind him, and the two immediately start to struggle, the official said."
If this was related to his startup (and not some other personal dealing) then a clear motive would be for a legacy carrier being disrupted to want end his startup...
Your comment made me realize I was making an assumption that it was related to his business. I guess I just figure for someone to be trying to make progress in a place where progress is sorely needed, that its unlikely for them to have relationships or dealings that would warrant such heavy-handed consequences.
If it was political, I wonder who benefits the most from this. Surely there will be scrutiny now, if there's more case details than are reported. I hope they don't get away with this. This will scare off entrepreneurs, maybe that's exactly what the killer wants. Maybe they want to discourage not only Gokada, but any company or product that might disrupt status quo.
Who knows. This is nasty stuff.
Wasn't just his company - bike sharing was banned in the state without warning. Also, commercial bike operations were banned on major roads and completely in some cities.
Following Lagos state, neighboring states immediately announced bans, telling the ride sharing companies not to come over.
Bike ride sharing companies were forced to rebrand as dispatchers. The bikes however must have delivery boxes fitted on the bikes else - the bikes would be seized.
Only in developed countries, in a lot of the world that's actually exactly what you get when you disrupt someone's market.
It's comparable because it happened in France? :)
Robbery? Murder during attempt to get the victim to transfer money or bitcoins to an intruder? Lots of possibilities even without any context except the victim being somewhat wealthy.
With that out of the way, as someone who's lived in NYC for decades, I would say that most stories you hear with these broad strokes involve cocaine.
If I were a betting man, my money would be on he owed someone money from his part of the world and decided that because the law said that the debt evaporated his creditors would let it go.
I wonder what the motivation was. It doesn't seem like a market where there'd be the political pressure to assassinate someone. Maybe if there was someone trying to rethink the way pharmaceuticals or something, I could understand a CEO getting chopped into pieces by some shadowy figure, but ridesharing? It benefits everyone to carpool and use fewer cars to get people from place to place.
Ugh. God bless his family.