Oba Olugbenga Sonuga

According to the statement from the Simawa Royal Family and Simawa Traditional Council, Oba Sonuga joined his ancestors in the early hours of Sunday 1 November 2026, aged 81, after a brief illness. One report, in National Insight News, gave the date as Friday 30 October 2026. The statement, dated Monday 2 November 2026, was signed by Olootu Omooba Olumuyiwa Sonuga. No further cause of death was made public.

The council said it would announce the burial rites and the time for official condolences together with the royal family and the Ogun State Government, and asked people to remember the family and the kingdom in their prayers. Among those who paid tribute was Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, who called his reign "an important chapter in the history and development of Simawa".

Few details of Olugbenga Gbadebo Sonuga's early life have been published. He was a member of the royal family of Simawa in Remoland, Ogun State, and was 81 when he died in 2026. As a young man he trained in theatre under Wole Soyinka, later the Nobel laureate in literature, whom he called "Mon Prof".

Sonuga worked for about ten years with the artist and architect Demas Nwoko at the New Culture Studios in Ibadan, and ran a successful film company, 4Reels.

From 1984 to 1994 he was Director of the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture. He restructured the council into departments including design, performing arts, architecture and monuments, and festivals. In 1994 Lagos State won the overall first prize at the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST).

He produced the touring performance of the stage play Ori in the United States in 1986, and wrote and produced SALT for the United Nations World Decade for Cultural Development, staged at the National Theatre, Lagos, in 1989.

After retiring from the Lagos State service he founded the International Centre for the Arts, Lagos (ICAL). His book Deep As The Ocean: An Auto-Photo-Biography in Three Cycles, a record of more than seven decades of photography and culture, was launched at Freedom Park, Lagos, on his 70th birthday.

Sonuga ascended the throne of his forefathers in 2006 as Ogbodo I, Fadesewa of Simawa. His reign saw Simawa change from an agrarian community into a growing urban area dominated by housing estates. The kingdom became nationally prominent as host to the very large auditorium of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The royal family said he maintained an excellent relationship with the traditional rulers of Remo under the leadership of the Akarigbo of Remoland.

Sonuga is remembered both as a king who presided over two decades of rapid growth in Simawa and as one of the builders of public arts administration in Lagos. The royal family's statement closed: "His legacies of culture, peace and development will forever endure."