Members of his father's family want the reportedly planned Wednesday burial suspended while the circumstances of the gospel singer's death are investigated.
The paternal family of gospel singer Olayemi Bolaji, popularly known as Toluwanisings, wants an investigation into his death and his planned burial suspended until the circumstances are established. The demand came from his uncle, Lawal Ademola, also known as Lawal Rauf, ahead of a burial planned for Wednesday, October 28, 2026. Toluwanisings died on October 14, 2026, in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Rauf set out the family's objection in a statement:
"We don't want him to be buried on Wednesday as they planned to. Everyone from his father's family has agreed to this. We want people to help us in doing investigations into his death."
Rauf also said the family wants the singer buried at his Ibadan home. "Whenever we decide to bury him, we want him to be buried in his home in Ibadan, where his wife is currently living," he said.
The family is divided over where he should rest. His father, Muniru Adekunle Olayemi, wants him buried in the house his son built, or beside his late mother in Ikirun, Osun State.
"If they won't allow him to be buried inside his house, they should bring him down to the village where his mother is and bury him beside her," the father said.
According to the father, the singer's wife, Akanbi Elizabeth, proposed a cemetery or church burial because she would not be comfortable living in a house where her husband was buried. Her own account of the disagreement has not been reported.
Regardless of the family's call to halt the interment, a service of songs was set for Tuesday, October 27, in Ibadan. A tribute night, announced on the singer's verified Instagram account, was also scheduled for Tuesday, October 27: "A Night of Tributes: Honouring the Life and Legacy of Toluwanisings", at 3 pm at Hall of Grace, Jogor Centre, Ibadan. Support with money was also sought by the family for the singer's spouse and his two daughters.
Babadunni, the singer's personal assistant, said he was not present when the singer collapsed but rushed to the scene after receiving a call. "We took him to up to seven to eight hospitals in Ibadan, but God said his time was up," Babadunni said. Claims that hospitals turned him away have not been independently established.
The University College Hospital, Ibadan, said it had no record of the singer being brought in. Its public relations officer, Funmilayo Enitan, said: "There was no record of it with the management."
A Nigerian lawyer known on X as @egi_nupe has raised the legal side of the home-burial request. The lawyer maintains that interring a corpse in a residential building or area without explicit permission from the state governor is a criminal offence under the Criminal Code Act's Section 246. The lawyer also said that where a family deadlocks over burial, state authorities may need to step in.
Threats of legal action have come from gospel artist Tope Alabi and the comics Ayobami Ajewole (Woli Agba) and Olamide Oladimeji (Dele Omo Woli) against people who have made claims tying them to the singer's death. The people named dispute the claims, and no report has shown that any of them was responsible. Alabi's solicitors, Oakmount Legal Practitioners, issued a cease-and-desist letter dated October 24, 2026, over posts from October 20 to 24 that allegedly accused her of murder and ritual killing. The lawyers wrote: "They are false in every particular."
The solicitors for Woli Agba and Dele Omo Woli, Gemgold Solicitors, issued a notice dated October 23. Woli Agba shared it on his Instagram page on October 25. It said: "We state categorically that these allegations, particularly those falsely associating our Clients with the demise of Toluwanisings, are entirely false, unsubstantiated, and unfounded."
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