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Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

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Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#101

Post by BTCOG »

MeanSpirit wrote: post #49
adrianmonk wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No value judgment is offered about whether a luxury condo is a good, bad, or neutral thing.

The fact that it's there to begin with implies it was noteworthy enough to include it, and the choice of including something versus not including is a value judgement. If instead the title read, "New York tech entrepreneur found decapitated wearing expensive suit", it would be more likely to strike people as odd, but isn't it essentially the same thing?

It's part of telling the story. You have to picture this is a very fancy condo, and that it had keyed elevator access directly into his apartment. This implies he likely knew and let the killer into his place. It's part of the visualization.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#102

Post by filleduchaos »

adenozine wrote: post #37
filleduchaos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that there was a sudden & pretty draconian regulation passed early this year that gutted Gokada's primary business (ridesharing on motorbikes). He was very passionate in his disagreement with the government's decision. The company pivoted pretty neatly (in my opinion) to last-mile deliveries instead - the pandemic certainly helped drive demand - but currently there's morbid speculation that potentia…

Okay, to play devil's advocate for a moment. 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…

Well, the idea is less financial gain and more punishment/retribution. You don't disappear/kill people in such a manner unless you want to send a message of some sort.

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.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#103

Post by ed25519FUUU »

> Inside the man's living room, sources say it appeared the killer worked hard to cover their tracks, but was perhaps interrupted or got spooked before getting rid of the evidence.

Uh, those luxury apartments have cameras everywhere. Why would they think they could cover anything?

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#104

Post by chubot »

Uh wow, I never heard of this company or person, but this is horrible and tragic. However I just read "The Upstarts", the 2017 book about AirBNB and Uber.

It specifically mentions that 2 rideshare leaders felt their lives were threatened by local competition. I believe it was the original founder of Seamless in NYC, and an early executive at Uber, I believe when they were launching in NYC. Apparently it's not uncommon for taxis and limos to be have connections to local crime.

I have no idea if that happened here, but I've also never heard of a story like this in the tech startup world.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#105

Post by ordinaryradical »

jedimind wrote: post #89
1zael wrote: post #23

This may be socio-politically related. Extremists from Bangladesh (his original country) are known to use hacking and dismemberment as a terror tactic.

YCombinator rules: "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. That destroys the curiosity this site exists for. "

You need to learn where these rules apply, not just how to quote them. OP introduced context for the murder. It may not be particularly relevant or it may be spot on, but it's hardly introducing flamebait or ideology into the conversation.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#106

Post by catalogia »

tsimionescu wrote: post #57
slim wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you'd be surprised. it seems he was getting death threats because of his business. disrupting established syndicates doing business transferring large amounts of cash everyday is risky. in France for example, taxi drivers burned Ubers in protest.

Did they burn them with the drivers inside? If not, how is that comparable to killing and dismembering a human being?

Arson may not be murder, but comparing one violent felony to another doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#107

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

capitol_ wrote: post #79
stwrong wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is getting cut up into a million pieces and dumped into the sewers? How common is such an occurrence?

This is a quite hard question to answer, as if it's done correctly no-one will know and the person will simply vanish. And there is of course countless reasons why someone vanishes, but then again, there is a lot of missing people: https://www.statista.com/statistics/240387/number-of-missing...

Those numbers are astounding.

Slightly south of half a million kids/teens go missing every year? And 150,000 adults?

How many of these cases are never closed?

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#108

Post by marcinzm »

adenozine wrote: post #37
filleduchaos wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that there was a sudden & pretty draconian regulation passed early this year that gutted Gokada's primary business (ridesharing on motorbikes). He was very passionate in his disagreement with the government's decision. The company pivoted pretty neatly (in my opinion) to last-mile deliveries instead - the pandemic certainly helped drive demand - but currently there's morbid speculation that potentia…

Okay, to play devil's advocate for a moment. 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…

>that'd be geopolitical suicide

Saudi Arabia seems to be doing fine last I checked.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#109

Post by ponker »

jeffbee wrote: post #5

The focus on the cost of the victim’s dwelling is so weird. I hope when they find my body they don’t waste half the article projecting local housing policy onto me, as if it were my fault.

Well it’s often thought that if you buy expensive real estate that you will be safe in it — low crime areas, good security, etc. that’s why it’s news.

Re: Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

#110

Post by byoogle »

jeffbee wrote: post #5

The focus on the cost of the victim’s dwelling is so weird. I hope when they find my body they don’t waste half the article projecting local housing policy onto me, as if it were my fault.

This article is re-reported – and badly written:

“His limbs and head were stuffed in bags in the living room.

“…

“It remains unclear how the victim died.”

Here’s a more informative, earlier article: https://www.pulse.ng/news/ceo-of-gokada-fahim-saleh-found-de...

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