Popular Musician, Kollington Ayinla Hospitalized, Placed On Oxygen

Popular Nigerian fuji musician, Alhaji Kolawole Rasaq Ilori, popularly known as Kollington Ayinla, is critically ill and has been hospitalized.

Reports have it that the 75-year-old, who has been ill for over a week, is currently on admission at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja, Sahara Reporters revealed.

According to the report, Kollington’s condition had become critical and had to be placed on oxygen.

However, the family has been keeping it close to their chest.

Meanwhile, the 75-year-old fuji musician on Tuesday refuted death rumours circulating about him on social media.

He further addressed his health status at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in Ikeja, Lagos.

The report that Kollngton Ayinla was battling undisclosed ailments and in critical health conditions was making the rounds on social media on Tuesday.

However, in a two-minute nineteen-second video shared by LagosGist (@LagosGist) on Tuesday, Kollington expressed gratitude to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for his support during his recent illness.

Additionally, he thanked the CMD of LASUTH, Adetokunbo Fabanwo, and the hospital management for their care.

Above all, he thanked God for divine healing and thanked all his fans who have assisted him.

Popular Musician, Kollington Ayinla Hospitalized, Placed On Oxygen

He said he is alive because of God, the governor, LASUTH, and others.

“I want to thank Lagosians. I want to thank the government of Lagos State Government and the management of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and the team under the leadership of Adetokunbo O. Fabanwo.

It is only God that can save life but I want to appreciate him and the team because I would have gone to the great beyond.

I give it to the LASUTH. They are king for taking care of me. They deserve my salutations. LASUTH LASUTH LASUTH, you are king. They said I was dead, but I’m here speaking alive from the LASUTH now,” Kollighton Ayinla speaks in Yoruba in the short video clip.

Ayinla was born Abdulrasaq Kolawole Ilori on 20 August 1949 to Chief Ayanda Ilori and Alhaja Asiawu Mofodeke Ilori.

Known variously as Baba Alatika, Kebe-n- Kwara, but better known as Kollington Ayinla, he hails from Ilota, a town on the outskirts of Ilorin, Kwara State.

Ayinla and his friend and rival Ayinde Barrister, with whom he was involved in musical fights, dominated the Fuji music scene from the 70s through to the 80s and early 90s.

Despite their fights, they both ranked as leading stars of Fuji music.

Popular Musician, Kollington Ayinla Hospitalized, Placed On Oxygen

Ayinla began recording for Nigerian EMI in 1974 and 1978, he later set up his label, Kollington Records, through which he released not less than 30 albums over the next five years.

As the popularity of fuji grew and the market became big enough to support both artists, Kollington and Barrister’s enmity diminished. By 1983, both men could stand side by side as mourners at the funeral of apala star Haruna Ishola.

Still, a very remarkable thing about both artistes was that they were once soldiers. Ayinla joined the Nigeria Army in 1967, while Barrister joined in 1968. Yet both of them resigned at the same time.

“I started a year before he also joined in 1968. I joined the Army in 1967. When Sikiru Ayinde saw me in Army uniform, he admired the uniform and my cap.

Anytime he came to visit, he would wear my cap and ask if it fit him and I would say yes, he kept doing that anytime he came until he finally joined the army.

I was in the Signal Department and then based in Apapa barracks.

But from there I was posted to Abeokuta. But when it was time to quit the Army, both of us resigned at the same time,” Ayinla maintained.

Yet a new and equally public rivalry emerged in the mid-’80s, this time with “Queen of Waka” star Salawa Abeni, who exchanged bitter personal insults with Kollington over a series of album releases and counter-releases.

At the start of the 1980s, Ayinla started his own record company, Kollington Records, to release his music and he remains to this day an extremely prolific artist, having recorded more than 100 albums.

Asked in an interview which of his songs made him popular, Ayinla said it was “Ijo Yoyo.”