Zeb Ejiro reacts as family announces Saint Obi’s burial date

Filmmaker Zeb Ejiro has reacted to the announcement of burial date for actor Saint Obi.

Obinna Nwafor, popularly known in Nollywood and beyond as Saint Obi, died at the age of 57 on May 7 in Jos, Plateau State after a protracted illness.

He will be buried in his hometown Umuezealaeze in Imo State on Friday, August 18, his family announced in a flyer that circulated on social media on Friday.

Zeb Ejiro, who featured Saint Obi for the first time in his 1998 movie Goodbye Tomorrow, posted the flyer on his Facebook page.

The man fondly called the Sheikh of Nollywood captioned his post “The Saint…it is so hard to take.”

Speaking in an interview with Vanguard after Saint Obi’s death, Zeb said the deceased called him two weeks before he died.

“I asked him where he had been; that everybody had been looking for him. That was when he told me that he had been down and was admitted to a hospital. He added that he had done multiple surgeries and his condition wasn’t improving. His elder sister then made arrangements to move him to Jos, where he could be given proper treatment. That was the last time we spoke, as I promised to reach out to him again. But I never did, as the next thing I heard was that Obi is no more.”

Like others close to Saint Obi, Ejiro added that the actor’s failed marriage to MTN executive Lynda Amobi contributed to his death.

“Obi told me a couple of times that his marriage was crumbling and it was eating him up. He was a family man, somebody that loved to stay with his kids and build a happy home.

“But when his marriage crumbled, it really affected him and he never recovered from the shock till death.” When a man is not together with his family, he will be depressed. No man wants to go into that kind of situation and be happy. So, that contributed to his death,” Ejiro said.