The Edo State Police Command has apprehended the husband of Mrs. Toluige Olokoobi following her suicide.
Olokoobi was the mother of Oreofeoluwa Lawal-Babalola, the young boy whose video pleading with his mother using the phrase “mummy be calming down” gained widespread attention in 2020.
Oreofeoluwa gained widespread recognition on social media when a video of him tearfully attempting to confidently pacify his scolding mother went viral.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State found inspiration in the video, using it to convey an Eid-el-Kabir message to Muslims and residents of Lagos, encouraging them to stay calm during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subsequently, the boy and his family met with the governor, who praised his courage and composure.
Despite limited updates about the family over the past three years, distressing news surfaced on Tuesday on social media indicating that the boy’s mother had taken her own life.
A user, identified as X, revealed that Olokoobi had committed suicide in Benin, the capital of Edo State, citing undisclosed reasons. X, claiming to have been at the scene on Monday afternoon, mentioned that she had chosen not to confide in anyone about her troubles before tragically ending her life.
“The woman in the viral Mummy Calm down video has just committed suicide here in Benin,” he wrote.
“She refused to speak to anyone about her problems. She left three kids for her husband including the popular Mummy Calm Down boy.”
Meanwhile, confirming Olokoobi’s demise in a conversation with BBC Pidgin, Chidi Nwabuzor, the spokesperson for the Edo State Police Command, disclosed that her husband had been apprehended and detained for interrogation.
Nwabuzor stated that the husband reported the incident to the police, recounting that “he came home from the market when he saw his wife hanging with rope on her neck”.
According to Nwabuzor, she was swiftly taken to the hospital and later to the mortuary after being confirmed dead.