Video: ‘Let Toluwanisings have a befitting burial’ – Woli Arole makes appeal

By Adegboyega Adeleye

Comedian and preacher Woli Arole has appealed to those involved in the burial dispute surrounding late gospel singer Olayemi Bayonile Bolaji, popularly known as Toluwanisings, to allow him a befitting burial, urging them to end what he described as unnecessary public arguments.

Arole made the appeal in a video shared on Instagram on Monday, describing the late singer as a great talent whose death had left friends and colleagues grieving.

“I want to speak on behalf of Toluwanisings’ demise, and this is what God asked me to say. We’ve lost a great guy, a great gift to a generation. Even we, his friends and colleagues, have not recovered. For some of us, he is so close to us, and his death is really painful. A big elephant has gone,” he said.

He also criticised people he accused of using the controversy to attract attention on social media, saying public discussion should instead focus on Toluwanisings’ wife and children.

“It’s saddening and sad that a lot of people are now beginning to want to start to use it as a means for social media traction. You are m***. I have a right to say it. A young man had died in almost his prime, and the discussion is not even about the wife left behind and two kids? No. What you want to start doing is unlicensed, ungoverned, unnecessary talk, interviews and nonsense. A lot of people speaking about him this way never spoke about him while he was alive, about his music, please, please,” Arole said.

He urged those involved to let the burial arrangements proceed and allow the singer to be laid to rest with dignity.

“This is why it is a burden in my spirit, and I have to speak, and this is what the Lord is laying in my heart. The Bible says: Let the dead bury their dead. Whatever process, anything that needs to be done within that corner, let it be done. Let the young man be given a befitting burial,” he said.

Woli Arole added that the burial dispute could not erase the singer’s musical legacy and called on the public to support his family and preserve his work through his children.

“Nobody can ruin his legacy; he lived a good life, please. He sang songs that are eternal; his songs rang in our hearts. Whichever way he is buried, Toluwanisings is in our hearts forever; his sound is forever. So, please, I want to beg us in the name of Jesus, you should focus our energy on what is left: how his legacy will be preserved in his children and the wife,” he said.

He concluded: “God bless Toluwanisings’ legacy, God bless his wife and his children, let the noise and unnecessary nonsense die down in the name of Jesus.”

Toluwanisings’ family announced that the singer died in the early hours of October 14, 2026, but did not disclose the cause of death.

The singer’s burial arrangements have drawn public attention following disagreements over where he should be laid to rest.

Vanguard previously reported that a family representative rejected a cemetery burial and threatened to exhume the singer’s remains if he were buried there. His paternal grandmother also said she opposed a cemetery burial and wanted him buried at his home.