Pius Bongolypso Amolo throws Arts City into mourning

It was a sad Wednesday for Arts City, as practitioners woke up to the news of the death of the stage and screen actor, singer and model, Pius Amolo.

The busy actor and singer, who was popular for his Bongolypso brand of music, reportedly passed on on Tuesday from complications he suffered after a gas explosion.

An actor of vast credit, Saint Pius, as the actor was popularly called by fans and close friends, lived and died in the art. He was a committed, passionate and total theatre artiste, who hugged stage, screen and singing performances as if his life depended on them.

Producers sought him out for roles that would be interpreted with so much depth.

Stage productions that have had the benefit of his expert portrayal include Ahmed Yerima’s Trials of Oba Ovanranwen and the epic play, Nana of the Niger Delta.

“Sad, sad, sad. We have lost a gem. Pius was a resource. He was a die-hard theatre practitioner. He would be sorely missed.

NANTAP will miss him,” was how Israel Eboh, president of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) reacted to the death of the entertainer, who shot into reckoning as a singer after he released a hit single, Ori mo ola, which enjoyed massive airplay on radio and television.

A meeting to deliberate on plans to give him a befitting burial has been fixed for today at 4pm at the Ayo Bankole Centre, Surulere, Lagos.