The Nigerian movie industry is still grappling with the sudden and controversial death of Yoruba Nollywood actress and producer Temitope Kofoworola Osoba, popularly known as Tope Osoba, who passed away on August ́4 at the age of 40. A native of Ogun State, Osoba had been one of the most recognisable faces in Yoruba-language cinema, a performer and producer whose career was interrupted two years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a procedure to remove malignant tissue, and in an interview posted on her page in February 2025, she spoke candidly about discovering a lump during self-examination, learning that she had cancer, and ultimately undergoing surgery in 2024. After the procedure, she publicly discussed her recovery, announced her return to the big screen, and used her social media platforms to advocate for cancer awareness. Her death, which came after what many believed was a successful surgical intervention, therefore triggered a wave of shock and speculation. Since the news broke, dozens of theories have circulated on blogs and social media about how she spent her final days and what actually killed her. Some insisted she died from complications arising from breast cancer, citing her medical history and reports that the disease had spread through her body; others asserted she died at a police station in Ikorodu, a claim initially advanced by her lover and pastor;; a few alleged murder or spiritual attack, pointing to her two-year residence with a Celestial Church of Christ cleric and the circumstances surrounding her departure from his home weeks before her death. In a two-part YouTube interview with actor and filmmaker Kunle Afod, her maternal aunts, Peju Ogunesan and Iretiola, gave a detailed, chronological account of her final hours, saying they were with her when she died and describing events that led from a frantic phone call to a police station in Ikorodu and ultimately to the emergency ward of Ogun State University Teaching Hospital (OSUTH)in Sagamu. The family has also confirmed the cancer diagnosis and surgery, but said there was more to the story than simple disease, and they have called for calm until autopsy results, which were only recently carried out, are released.
Among the first narratives to trend was that Osoba died because of breast cancer. A social media influencer, Oluwatobi, wrote on X: “Asides that cancer may have aggressively spread through her body, what if depression also contributed to her death?” The post accompanied an interview in which Osoba complained that producers and colleagues in the industry had stopped giving her jobs, said she was an orphan and there was no one to help her, suggesting a combination of physical illness and emotional distress. Another influencer, Ebun Kenkenlewu, listed Osoba alongside other Nollywood figures who had died from cancer in the same year, including Alexx Ekubo, described as suffering advanced metastatic kidney cancer;; Oby Kechere, known as Ms Koi Koi, who had a prolonged battle with kidney cancer;;and Taiwo Hassan, known as Ogogo, who was then battling stage 4 cancer. Adeyemo Abiodun also posted,”The Nigerian movie industry is in mourning following the death of Yoruba Nollywood actress and producer Tope Osoba, who passed away at the age of 40 after a prolonged battle with breast cancer.” Similar tributes on Facebook described her death as coming “after her battle with cancer,” And interior decorator Emmanuel Chinagoro wrote, “Both died of cancer. This life has no manual.” Yet the family’s account later complicated these narratives. While confirming the breast cancer diagnosis, the maternal aunts revealed that Osoba had been successfully treated and that doctors told them the cancer had not spread to any organ or the other breast by the time of surgery. They also revealed a breakdown in care and family communication: after she was discharged from Evercare Hospital in Lekki following surgery, the actress blocked them from contacting her, and they attributed that blockage to Onadeko, her lover, and Foluke Daramola, another Nollywood actress. The surgery itself, they said, was successful, and doctors commended their timely action, but Osoba was discharged without their consent even though the family had initiated the procedure and contributed to et medical bills. The family said they had made arrangements for post-operative care in Sagamu, but the actress became unreachable, stalling those plans. Thus, while cancer was real and had shaped her final two years, her relatives insisted that the immediate circumstances of her death required a more nuanced explanation, one involving a police station, a promised visit to a prophetess, and a sudden, inexplicable collapse.
The most viral claim, however, was that Osoba died in a police station in Ikorodu Local Government Area. This narrative originated from a statement by Itunu Onadeko, the late actress’ lover and Shepherd-in-Charge of Celestial Church of Christ, Onibuore Cathedral, Bogije, in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. Speaking with the church’s media arm, Onadeko said Osoba had been living with him for two years and left his house three weeks before her death to visit her family in Ogun State. On the day she died, he said, she was on her way to see Kehinde Osoba, a prophetess whose church is located around Ikorodu. He claimed he called her once that morning while she was still in transit, could not reach her afterwards, and later received a call around midnight from a random person who told him she had died at a police station in Ikorodu. “I called her many times that day, but she didn’t take her calls. But afterwards I saw a WhatsApp status from her and felt she was fine. However, I got a call from a random person around midnight and learnt that she had died at a police station in Ikorodu,” he said. This statement quickly became headline newsand prompted reactions such as that of family content producer Just Eniola, who wrote, “With how draining breast cancer can be, Temitope Osoba survived it, only to pass at a police station?” The same claim was repeated by multiple social media users and bloggers. The lover’s account, though, did not match the detailed version later given by her aunts. The aunts confirmed the police station visit but placed it hours before her death, not as the place where she died. They said they had received a phone call from Osoba on the morning of August ́4, and that she asked to be buried next to her late mother. They later learned she was scheduled to visit the Revered Mother Kehinde Osoba that day; through hairdresser Omosalewa, they arranged to meet them in Ogijo area. While they were en route, Omosalewa called to say they were no longer going to see the prophetess but were instead going to the police station. At Igbogbo Police Station, they found Osoba had jumped out of a moving vehicle, was acting delirious, and claiming the people with her were going to kill her. Police officers at the station had intervened to resolve the matter
Before the family’s account emerged, however, social media had already turned Onadeko into a suspect. The fact that Osoba had reportedly lived with him for two years at his church and residence in Ibeju Lekki, and left only three weeks before her death, led many to directly blame him. Others framed her death as spiritual attack: she had gone to live with a prophet, left his custody, and then died under mysterious circumstances, leading to claims that she was “a victim of spiritual attack” at her fiancé’s place. Foot TV Live wrote on Facebook,”There is more to Tope Osoba’s death. Tope seems to be a victim of spiritual victim.” The allegations were fuelled by the manner of Onadeko’s public disclosure and by the fact thatthe family had allegedly been blocked from seeing Osoba after her cancer surgery. The aunts said that while Osoba was hospitalised, she underwent surgery at Evercare Hospital in Lekki after a biopsy was performed at Ogun State University Teaching Hospital (OSUTH)in Sagamu. They had initiated the medical process and helped foot the bills, but when they arrived at the hospital on the day of discharge, they discovered she had already been discharged. “We were shocked and tried to reach her but realised that all of us had been blocked,” they recounted. The discharge was arranged by Onadeko and Foluke Daramola, they said, and Osoba became unreachable for about two years, cutting off the family’s post-surgical care plans. Only on the morning of her death did Ogunesan receive a call from Osoba after all that time. The late actress made a frantic request: she wanted to be buried next to her late mother. She had also been in contact with Kehinde Osoba Eritosin, a reverend mother from her paternal side, and was scheduled to visit her on the day she died. That promise, together with the sudden call and Omosalewa’s role, set in motion the sequence of events that led to Igbogbo Police Station. Onadeko’s claim that he had not heard from her until midnight, while her family was with her throughout much of the day, also raised questions about his knowledge of her final movements. The family’s narrative did not accuse him of physical murder, but it highlighted a pattern of control, estrangement, and unanswered questions that many followers found hard to ignore.
According to the aunts’ interview with Kunle Afod, the final hours began in Ogun State when they received that morning call. They and the hairdresser agreed to meet Osoba, but the destination kept changing. “As we were about to get to Ogijo, Ikorodu, the hairdresser called, said they were no longer going to see the prophetess and that they were now going to the police station instead,” Ogunesan said. “We got to Igbogbo Police Station, Ikorodu,and learnt that Osoba had jumped down from the vehicle conveying her to the prophetess’s church and was acting delirious. She also made claims that the people with her were going to kill her. This led to traffic officers in the area taking her to the police station to resolve the matter.” At the station, Osoba reportedly repeated that she was going to die on that same day. Her aunts found her alive, though agitated, and confirmed she had indeed planned to visit the Reverend Mother. They left the police station with her and attempted to fulfil her plan, but when they got to the prophetess’s church, it was locked. They waited about two hours, then, running out of time, took her to another church where she was offered prayers and a cold drink. They then headed towards Sagamu with Osoba in the car. It was on this drive that her condition began to deteriorate. Ogunesan described how Osoba became restless, complained of feeling hot at the back, and refused to move to the middle row. She was glued to her phone, typing non-stop, allegedly speaking to the guy and updating”New Glory” on WhatsApp status. “We didn’t know anything about this,” Ogunesan said. Around 7 pm, while refuelling, Osoba asked for another chilled drink, but even after drinking it, she kept saying she was uncomfortable, that her body was “acting somehow.” They decided not to go straight home but to take her to a hospital for checks, because she also had symptoms resembling malaria. In the car, suddenly, Osoba gripped both aunts from the back and laid her head on their shoulders. They tried gently to chide her, but she said she couldn’t explain what was happening to her. At the first hospital, the doctor referred them to OSUTH,and as they drove to the teaching hospital, she grew weaker. She began stretching at the back. When asked what was wrong, she defecated on herself right there. As soon as they reached OSUTH’s gate, her head dropped and she defecated again. She became unresponsive. They asked Omosalewa to slap or hit her gently to revive her, call her name, but she did not respond. At the emergency hall, doctors rushed to attend to her but pronounced her dead on arrival
Omosalewa, the hairdresser who accompanied Osoba through the final hours, told interviewers that the actress kept talking about her lover and acted deliriously, even as she requested again to be buried next to her mother. She said Osoba mentioned having N20 million on her, but the hairdresser insisted she knew nothing about that money. “She kept speaking about her fiancé,” Omosalewa said, adding that Osoba seemed carefree until she began acting strangely only minutes before her death. The aunts’ account painted a picture of a woman who had survived cancer, regained public composure, and yet was privately entangled in relationships, unresolved family estrangement and, the family admitted, substance abuse. In a significant admission, Osoba’s aunts and her lover acknowledged thatthe late actress struggled with substance abuse both before and after her cancer diagnosis. That revelation, which came only after detailed description of her collapse, may help explain her delirium, abrupt mood swings, and physical deterioration. However, it also complicates anew the already murky question of cause of death. Was it cancer that had quietly spread, as early social media users insisted? A drug-related event or withdrawal, as the mention of substance abuse suggested? An acute medical emergency, such as a pulmonary embolism or cardiac event, induced by stress, dehydration, or a toxic reaction? Or something more sinister, as her own words—”they want to kill me”—and her request to be buried next to her mother hinted? The family has not publicly assigned a definitive cause, but has stressed that an autopsy was recently carried out,and that the result will be made available in the coming days. Until then, the conflicting narratives around Tope Osoba’s death—cancer, a police station, a prophet, a lover, a N20 million claim, and a final collapse at OSUTH gate—remain unresolved. What is certain, her aunts said, is that she was not alone when she died: she was in their care, on the way to the hospital, after a day that began with a sisterly reunion and ended with a phone call no one expected. Her legacy as a Nollywood actress and cancer awareness advocate, however, now shares space with a haunting, unfinished story of illness, faith, suspicion, and unanswered questions.
