Goodnight Sammie Okposo 

Ferdinand Ekechukwu

The Nigerian entertainment industry was thrown into mourning yesterday following the demise of popular gospel singer, Sammie Okposo, aged 51. The news of his death was confirmed by his project manager, Hillary Vincent via phone call. “Yes it’s true. It happened this morning,” Vincent was quoted to have said regarding the singer’s demise as he declined further comments.

However, sources claimed that Okposo slumped and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Following the news of his death, fellow entertainers and gospel artistes and fans took to their social media accounts to pay tributes and mourn the late singer.  

Sharing Okposo’s video on his Facebook page, fellow gospel singer, Tosin Bee, wrote, “Wow! Still can’t believe this. Just last night we were talking about reaching out to you today, that it’s time to release this project that you love so much.” 

Okposo who was The ‘Wellu Wellu’ master, as he was fondly called, was an internationally-recognised music producer, psalmist, and CEO of Zamar Entertainment. He started his music career as a soundtrack producer for Nollywood in 1992.

He was well-known at that time in the small circle of Nollywood actors and producers. He later began to get more career flashpoints when he started the Sammie Okposo Praise Party, a platform that brought many up-and-coming Nigerian gospel artistes into the scene. The Niger Delta-born music star was known for emboldening the gospel music scene by taking his music away from the quiet confines of the church.

He almost died after his concert in London on his way back to Lagos for a concert. He gave a testimony. That was just a few weeks ago. He released his first album Addicted in 2004. Okposo collaborated with many other artistes in the gospel and soul music fields.

He collaborated with popular gospel singer Marvellous Odiete on “Follow You”, performed regularly in Africa, Europe, and North America, and curated a series of concerts called SOPP (Sammie Okposo Praise Party). Okposo’s most recent album, The Statement (2018), was produced by the Grammy-winning Kevin Bond.

Despite most of his international status, Okposo always demonstrated his Nigerian roots with his songs, Okposo sang in different languages of Nigerian tribes including, Isoko, Urhobo, Edo, Efik, Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo. He was specially featured at annual gospel concerts home and abroad and demonstrated his vocal range alongside many established gospel ministers.

Some of his popular songs include ‘Lift Him High’, ‘Na Only You I know’, ‘Na Only You I Know’ ‘No more Drama’, ‘Jehovah Idi Ebube’, ‘Jehovah is glorious’, ‘The Statement’ and ‘Baba Ye’.