Nigerians woke up on Friday, August 14, 2015 to the news that 22-year-old Nigerian singer, Skiibii Mayana had reportedly slumped and died in his home while he was about to go out. The Trent did not report this story.
The artiste who is signed to Kcee’s Five Star Music record label had just released a new single, Sampu days back and wasn’t getting enough media buzz.
Little did Nigerian entertainment lovers suspect that Skiibii and his management would stoop so low as to feign his death so as to gain his media buzz.
As soon as the news of his death broke, reactions began to pour in on social media. Musicians such as Cynthia Morgan, Patoranking, Shaydee, Phyno, Davido and Wizkid even wrote touching tributes to the 22-year-old on social media.
A member of the Five Star crew, Sososoberekon put up a photo of a lit candle on his Instagram while the other members of the label, Harrysong and Kcee kept silent as fans began mourning the young artiste.
Fans could not understand how a young artiste who was on a radio tour less than 24 hours ago and looked so alive and healthy would suddenly slump and die.
Hours later, Kcee who is currently in Sweden broke his silence with a post on Instagram stating that the artiste was not dead.
According to him, Skiibii was responding to treatment. He wrote: “Been on transit from Oslo,Norway to Sweden this is to confirm@Skiibii is not dead he is responding to treatment. Official statement dropping soon.”
Fans began to question the label’s motive when blogger, Linda Ikeji revealed that the person who broke news of Skiibii’s reported death to her was Sososoberekon. Sososoberekon is a member of the Five Star crew and manages artistes on the platform. She also shared a photo of the young artiste lying on the floor which she said was also sent to her by Sososoberekon.
Sososoberekon has since deleted the picture of the lit candle he put up while many artistes have deleted the tribute messages they shared in honour of the supposedly dead Skibii.
The action of the label is so far being thoroughly criticized on social media as it is being considered an abuse of the media and a weak PR stunt. The artiste and his label’s credibility is now definitely chequered by this episode.
