Gospel singer apologises to Toluwanisings' widow for raising ₦6m for relative after voice note revelation

• Lanre Alewilese apologised to Toluwanisings' widow over a ₦6 million fundraiser for the late singer's UK-based relative.

• A voice note shared by Yinka TNT revealed Toluwanisings' reported frustration over spending about ₦12 million on the relative's education.

• Alewilese said he organised the fundraiser because the relative told him the late singer had promised to pay his £6,500 school fees.

Gospel singer Lanre Alewilese has apologised to the widow of the late singer Toluwanisings over his decision to organise a ₦6 million fundraising effort for a UK-based relative of the deceased towards his school fees.

Alewilese apologised in a statement on his Facebook page on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, admitting that he acted impulsively and saying he takes responsibility for his approach.

The controversy began when music personality Yinka Atanda, known as Yinka TNT, shared an audio recording she said was from Toluwanisings, in which he is heard complaining about the financial burden of funding a relative's education in the UK. 

In the recording, he said he had spent about ₦12 million on the young man and could no longer sustain it, and that he had suspended plans to set his wife up in a business because of the demands. 

Yinka TNT also alleged that the late singer had fallen out with members of his maternal family over the matter and urged them to stop pressuring his widow.

On Wednesday, she shared a receipt showing a ₦6 million transfer to the relative days after the singer's death. The disclosure drew criticism of Alewilese, with some accusing him of going against the late singer by supporting his maternal family.

Responding in an Instagram video on the same day, Alewilese said he organised the fundraiser after the relative told him Toluwanisings had promised to pay his £6,500 school fees shortly before his death.

He said he did not know the young man was not Toluwanisings' biological sibling until after the singer's death. "Before Toluwani died, he introduced Shadrach Taiwo to me as his sibling from the same father and mother," he said. He said Toluwanisings had never told anyone about their actual relationship and that the same young man was best man at his wedding.

Alewilese said the late singer had earlier asked him to help arrange the relative's travel to the United States, a plan that did not happen. He said he later learned the relative had gained admission in the UK and that Toluwanisings had been paying his tuition every year. He said he was abroad when the singer died and got the relative's contact from a member of his band.

READ ALSO: Enioluwa, Steve Chuks, others defend effeminate men amid backlash over fashion choices

It is also reported that the relative has indicated an intention to return the ₦6 million raised for his fees.

Alewilese had earlier publicly appealed for peace between the widow and the singer's father during the burial dispute, describing it as a misunderstanding.

The singer's maternal family had not publicly responded to the audio at the time of filing.