Police arrest husband, as mother of ‘mummy be calming down’ boy commits suicide

Men of the Edo State Police Command have arrested the husband of Mrs Toluige Olokoobi, after committing suicide.

Olokoobi was the mother to Oreofeoluwa Lawal-Babalola, the little boy whose video went viral after begging his mother with “mummy be calming down” in 2020.

Oreofeoluwa became popular on social media platforms after a video went viral of him in tears in an attempt to confidently appeal to his mother who scolded him.

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was inspired by the video at the time as he used it to send an Eid-el-Kabir message to Muslims and Lagos residents generally to maintain calm during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The boy alongside his family thereafter met with the governor, who hailed his courage and composure.

While nothing or little has been heard about the family after three years, sad news hit social media on Tuesday that the boy’s mother had killed herself.

An X user wrote that Olokoobi committed suicide in Benin, the capital of Edo State, due to undisclosed reasons.

The X user, who said he was at the scene of the incident on Monday afternoon, added that she had refused to share her problems with anyone before committing suicide.

“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 death in a chat with BBC Pidgin, the spokesperson of the Edo state police command, Chidi Nwabuzor, said her husband has been arrested and detained for questioning.

Nwabuzor said the husband reported the matter to the police.

The police spokesperson quoted the husband to have said that “he came home from the market when he saw his wife hanging with rope on her neck”.

Nwabuzor said she was rushed to the hospital and then to the mortuary after she was confirmed dead.