Oyindamola Olaleye 
Popular Nigerian singer, Niniola Apata, better known as Niniola, has opened up about the trauma of witnessing her father’s assassination, describing it as an experience she can never fully recover from.
Her father, Brigadier-General Simeon O. Apata (rtd.), a retired Nigerian Army Officer, was brutally murdered by gunmen on January 8, 1995, at their Lagos residence in the presence of his family.
Speaking in a recent interview on Jay On Air, the Maradona crooner revealed that the tragedy remains one of the most painful memories of her life, especially as she was her father’s favourite child.
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“I was in the house when my dad was murdered. And I was his favourite child, so you can imagine the trauma. Till today, I’m not over it. I can never get over it.
“I was very young when it happened. I don’t remember my exact age then, but it wasn’t a good memory at all,” Niniola admitted.
Niniola’s younger sister, Teni, also a well-known Afrobeat singer, had earlier revealed in 2023 that witnessing their father’s death at just two years old left her deeply traumatised.
The Apata family tragedy continues to cast a long emotional shadow on both sisters, even as they have gone on to become some of Nigeria’s most successful female artists in the Afrobeats scene.
