By Joshua Tosin Ogunsakin 
A skilled elderly drummer in Ibadan popularly called Ayangbenle ‘Baba Onilu’ is dead, The Nation has learnt.
Ayangbenle, a special drummer for Osun during the Osun Osogbo festival is a native of Ede town, Osun State.
The drummer’s son confirmed his demise.
He said: “Baba Onilu has passed away overnight. May Almighty Allah grant him Aljanah Fidarus”.
“Baba Onilu last word is “La Ilaaha Ila lahu”.
Ayangbenle used to drum for students of the University of Ibadan during convocations, then he also drummed to entertain corps members in Ibadan.
In April 2022, the drummer went viral when Adisa Olashile, a phone photographer and a corps member serving in Ibadan, Oyo, took random pictures of ‘Baba Onilu’ and the pictures went viral on social media platform – Twitter.
Olashile minted two of the pictures as NFT and they got collected immediately on OpenSea for 0.3 eth each – around one million naira.
Adisa promised to give Baba Onilu 50 per cent of the proceeds and he did. Five hundred thousand naira with an additional 100 thousand obtained from donations was handed over to Baba who received the huge cash in shock and disbelief as he was also presented with a picture frame of his image.
In an interview last year, Ayangbenle said he inherited the drumming skill from his father and did not go to any training center.
He said: “Drumming is the profession of my paternal grandmother’s lineage. I started drumming in Ibadan.”