By Amaechi Agbo

Veteran Nollywood Actor and musician, Onyeka Onwenu is dead

The late music icon slumped and died in Lagos on Tuesday night at the age of 72. She hailed from Arondizuogu, in Ideato North, Imo State,

The late One One singer died at the Reddington Hospital in Lagos after slumping at the birthday party of Mrs Stella Okoli.

“It is very sad. Onyeka Onwenu just performed at the birthday of Mrs. Stella Okoli today (Tuesday, July 30, 2024), and after performing, she slumped,.”

As at press time, however, her family is yet to make official statement over her death.

Onwenu will be remembered for her music albums such as In The Morning Light and Dancing In The Sun.

She also featured in the Half of a Yellow Sun and Lions Heart, among others.

Onyeka Onwenu born 31 January 1952, was a Nigerian singer/songwriter, actress, human rights and social activist, journalist, politician, and former X Factor series judge.

Onwenu hailed from Arondizuogu, in Ideato North, Imo State, but was raised in Port Harcourt. Her father was the Nigerian educationist and politician D. K. Onwenu, who died when she was four years old in an autocrash a week before his appointment as Minister for Education. She was the youngest of five children.

Onwenu had a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Communication at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, and an MA in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research, New York.

Dubbed the “Elegant Stallion” by the Nigerian press, she was a former chairperson of the Imo State Council for Arts and Culture. In 2013 she was appointed the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Women Development

She is a mother of two children.