Who Killed Amir Haffar? More questions than answers over murder of Lebanese businessman in Lagos
Nigeria: The grisly murder of a young Lebanese industrialist Amir Haffar in his Victoria Island apartment on Monday, February 14, 2022, is evoking reactions and raising more questions than answers.
It has now been six days. No clear motive has been identified for his murder. The identity of his attacker remains vague. Police said they are still gathering details and are yet to make an official announcement. The Lebanese Consulate in Lagos and its Ambassador to Nigeria are silent.
Amir’s corpse was found in his apartment at Ologun Agbaje street at Victoria Island, Lagos, on Valentine’s Day, maimed with several deep cuts. The scene of the murder is less than 10 minutes drive from the Lebanese Embassy on Eleke Crescent, Victoria Island.
“He was attacked in his deepest sleep,” a staff of Haffar Industrial Company, where Haffar was a Director, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, February 15, 2022.
Multiple accounts on social media analysed by Neusroom claimed Haffar was hacked to death in his sleep by a former domestic staff he had sacked over alleged theft. Neusroom could not immediately confirm this claim.
Nigerians are already drawing parallels between his murder and that of Fahim Saleh, the Gokada CEO stabbed and dismembered in his New York apartment by a former employee he had fired for stealing $90,000.
In multiple social media conversations monitored by Neusroom since Tuesday, February 15, 2022, the brutality of Haffar’s murder has united his Nigerian and Lebanese friends and family in grief. It has also intensified debate about the safety of lives in the city and the security risks some domestic employees represent.
“This country is becoming something else; people can just walk into someone’s house and murder him,” a staff of Haffar Industrial Company mourning Haffar’s death wrote on Facebook.
His murder is one of the high profile murders reported in Lagos in the last seven months. In June 2021, the CEO of Super TV, Michael Usifo, was allegedly murdered in an Airbnb apartment by his 21-year-old girlfriend, Chidinma Ojukwu, presently standing trial for the murder.
Meanwhile the silence from the Lagos Police Command is raising more questions. The Command told Neusroom it does not have the details of Amir’s death yet. It’s been five days since we asked.
“I will get back to you after getting the details,” the Lagos Police spokesperson, Adekunle Ajisebutu, wrote in a WhatsApp message sent to Neusroom on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.
On Friday, February 18, 2022, Ajisebutu again promised to respond to Neusroom’s inquiry about Haffar’s death after a follow-up message sent to him by a Neusroom correspondent on Thursday.
A family statement announcing Haffar’s death on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, and shared on Facebook by his elder brother Wassim Haffar has garnered over 150 condolence messages from family and friends extolling his virtues and mourning his death.
“In acceptance to the will of Allah, we announce the death of Amir Haffar,” a statement by the family published in Arabic and translated by Neusroom said.
“We will be observing the funeral prayers on his body on Wednesday 15th Rajab 1442 (16/02/22) in the Khaashaqjii mosque, and he will be laid to rest with the martyrs.”
Friends and family members mourning Haffar’s death describe him as an elegant, responsible and exceptional young man.
Born in London, the United Kingdom, Haffar spent four years at Brummana High School, a British secondary school in Lebanon with a long list of notable alumni, including a former Lebanese Prime Minister, a former Lebanese President, the Sultan of Oman and late Osama Bin Laden, who is believed to have attended the school briefly when he was 10 years old.
In the four years he spent at BHS, one of his schoolmates, Nader Dernaika, said, “He [Amir] made it difficult for people not to like him. In fact, every person I know has at least heard of him, let alone fond of him. He was a gentleman, respected and loved by many.”
In a tribute published on the school’s website, Dernaika added that “his [Amir’s] house was filled with food, people, and music. He lightened his mind and the moods of others with melodies. He was genuine, playful, spiritual, free, humorous and light, and knew when and how to have fun. He was an exceptional company.”
After leaving BHS in 2008, Haffar went to Lebanon American University, where he bagged a degree in Communication Studies. After his graduation, he moved to Lagos to join the family business as a director at Haffar Industrial Company Ltd, a textile production company in the Mushin area of Lagos. The family business was incorporated in Nigeria in August 1969, according to information obtained by Neusroom from the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Haffar warmed himself into the hearts of many employees at the company, establishing a reputation as an unfaltering expatriate, a compassionate boss and confidant to many of his employees.
His personality contrasts with the popular perception many Nigerians have of expatriates from the Middle East when you consider the myriads of complaints from Nigerians working in factories owned by Asians, especially Lebanese, Chinese and Indians.
The Lebanese are one of the few foreign nationals that have fully integrated into Nigerian society. Since the first Lebanese immigrant moved to Nigeria more than a century ago, Nigeria has become home to more than 30,000 Lebanese nationals living and doing business in Nigeria.
When Haffar visited Lagos in 2010, he shared memories of his visit on his Facebook page, promoting Nigerian music stars like P-Square to his Lebanese friends.
“Everyone be shaking on this one here now,” he wrote in response to a comment from one of his friends on a YouTube link of P-Square’s song he shared on Facebook.
While the Police are yet to confirm details of his death, we sent an email to the Lebanese Consulate in Lagos and the Lebanon Ambassador to Nigeria, Houssam Diab, they are yet to respond.
Some staff of Haffar Industries are also yet to respond to messages sent to them by a Neusroom correspondent.
Haffar’s short years, family, friends and staff in their tributes say, were defined by characteristic modesty, respect and love for subordinates and people around him.
Mpamugo said, “I lost count of your kindness towards everyone around you, especially me. You treated everyone on an equal standard. My heart bleeds so badly. Other people’s happiness gives you so much joy.”
He was “a man of a few words, yet every word carefully calculated so as not to cause trouble or create misunderstandings. A man of many talents and interests – the most versatile person at sports and by far the best driver I’ve seen. A man with no enemies because his intentions were so pure. He made it difficult for people not to like him. In fact, every person I know has at least heard of him, let alone fond of him. He was a gentleman, respected & loved by many.” Nader Dernaika, one of his friends and schoolmates at BHS, wrote in a tribute published on the school’s website.
Ghada Assaad, one of Haffar’s friends, also described news of his death as shocking and heartbreaking.
“It’s a tragedy to his family and friends. Amir was an elegant, mature and responsible young man…loved by all his teachers at school. He will be greatly missed.”
