The younger brother of late gospel singer Toluwanisings’ mother has broken his silence on the family controversy surrounding the singer’s death, explaining why the infant was taken from his father’s side and questioning the father’s long absence.
In a video that circulated widely on Saturday, October 31, 2026, the uncle defended his late sister’s family, described her struggles as a hardworking fashion designer, and said a woman known as Iya Nurse witnessed those difficulties. He stated that Toluwanisings’ mother died when the child was about six months old, not three months as some had claimed.
He pressed a pointed question about the father’s role.
“The question is: where was his father from the 1990s until 2007, when he reportedly had no contact with his son and did not bother to see him?” he said.
According to the uncle, the singer’s grandmother took him in before she died. He recounted his own efforts to survive while supporting the family: he learned surveying in Lagos, worked as a cashier at his wife’s workplace, and attended Yaba College of Technology. He challenged anyone asserting they had funded the singer’s life to prove it.
“Anyone claiming to have paid for anything in Toluwanisings’ life should produce the receipts and let us see,” he said.
He added that, despite the early separation, Toluwanisings later reached out to his father in the North and made efforts to care for him. The uncle blamed Dunmininu Blog for the recent interview with the father, saying the questions could shape the responses.
“A child has died, and everyone is mourning, yet some people are setting up ring lights to make statements about matters they know little or nothing about, dragging families into unnecessary controversy,” he said.
He also pushed back against accusations directed at the late singer’s family.
“Does the death of a husband automatically mean that his wife is responsible for his death?” he asked, before urging Nigerians to let the family mourn in peace.
Toluwanisings, whose full name was Olayemi Bayonile Bolaji (also referred to as Sodiq Olayemi Bayonle), died in the early hours of October 14, 2026, in Ibadan after collapsing. Age reports have differed: some accounts listed him as 41 while his father said he was born in July 1992. His death has since been followed by a public dispute between his paternal relatives and his widow over burial arrangements, with some relatives calling for an investigation and preferring a home or hometown burial while the widow has favoured a cemetery.