Nigerian Entertainment Today can confirm that Nollywood actress, Rachel Oniga, is dead.
She died of a heart-related issue around 10 pm on Friday, July 30, 2021, her sister Toyin Odusote said in a statement released on Saturday.
Antar Laniyan, a respected Nollywood actor-director, also confirmed Oniga’s death in an Instagram post.
“This is one bad news. Good night Mama Racheal Oniga. RIP, I’m struggling for words. This is hard to swallow,” he wrote on Instagram at 11 am.
When Netng called him earlier in the day, he said he hadn’t heard about Oniga’s death and prays it is not so.
The founder of Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA), Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, veteran actor Jide Kosoko, President of Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Producers of Nigeria (TAMPAN), Bolaji Amusan, and a former President of Actors Guild of Nigeria, Segun Arinze, could not be reached for comments. They did not pick calls from Netng correspondents.
Born May 1957 in Èbúté Metta, Lagos, to parents of Delta State origin, Oniga was one of the most versatile Nigerian actors. She featured prominently in Yoruba and English movies in her acting career that spanned almost three decades.
Her first appearance on the screen was in a TV series ‘Memorial Hospital’ in 1993, where she played the role of an inmate. She followed the success with her debut Nollywood movie ‘Onome’ in the same year. Two years later, she crossed over to the Yoruba genre, featuring in ‘Owo Blow’ directed by Tade Ogidan.
From then, she cemented her place in the industry as one of the best and most versatile.
She told The Punch newspaper in 2017 that her dream as a kid was to be a singer and dancer, but she chose acting in 1993 after she got separated from her husband, who left her to marry another woman.
“I started acting in 1993 after I got separated from my husband; he’s late now. I was a full-time housewife,” she said in the interview.
The incident, according to her, “made me determined to prove to him that I could stand without any man.”
She remained single until her death and raised her three children.
