Popular Nigerian Afrobeat singer, Patoranking, has suffered a devastating family loss after his younger sister, Chioma Onuabuchi, and her husband, George, died in a gas explosion in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
According to the Ebonyi State Police Command, the incident occurred on August 25 on the waterworks axis in Abakaliki. DSP Joshua Ukandu, the Command’s spokesman, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that preliminary investigations revealed that the couple died from a gas explosion, not an inverter battery explosion as initially suspected.
“It happened on the waterworks axis in Abakaliki on August 25. The residents living around the scene called the attention of our personnel who visited the place, but the couple had already been taken to the hospital. It’s very unfortunate that both finally died. The wife, Chioma, died sometime in August, while the husband died this month, September,” Ukandu said.
Also, the police spokesman confirmed Chioma’s relationship to Patoranking. He stated, “We gathered that the wife was a younger sister to the popular Nigerian Afrobeat singer, Patoranking.”
Additionally, a relative of the deceased couple, who preferred to remain anonymous, described the incident as a tragic loss for the family. “They were a young couple. They had only a child, a three-year-old son. Please, I have nothing more to say. I cannot say more than this. They have gone,” the relative said.
The tragic incident has left the family and fans of Patoranking in shock and mourning the loss of his sister.