Ogunrombi who was popular for his role in Wale Adenuga’s Comedy series, Papa Ajasco was confirmed dead by Shaibu Husseini, a Theatre practitioner, and Director at the National Troupe of Nigeria, where Ogunrombi was once Music Instructor.
Although the details given by Husseini are quite sketchy, he, however, confirmed that the seasoned Thespian breathed his last yesterday.
“I have just been reliably informed that the ethnomusicologist, former Music Instructor with the NationalTroupe of Nigeria and one-time stand in for the ‘Papa Ajasco’ character on the popular WAP Comic Series ‘Papa Ajasco’ Mr. Femi Ogunrombi is DEAD. I am told that the actor, singer, highlifist and trained Nurse whom we fondly called ‘Uncle Ogurombo’ (not to his hearing though) passed on this evening”, he wrote on his social media pages.
Ogunrombi took over the character, Papa Ajasco when the former character, Abiodun Ayoyinka pulled out of the show and he carried on with the role while it lasted.
In a moving tribute on a highlife music WhatsApp chat group, theatre artiste Edmond Enaibe, a friend and associate in Ogunrombi’s days at the then university of Ife, traced the deceased’s career trajectory thus:
“Femi Ogunrombi, lived music because music was his calling. He had unlike his twin brother, switched from the sciences (medical) to study music at the then University of Ife, where he with other talented voices formed the “Ayoro Voices” – a choral group that would become the defining melody of traditional folk songs in the early 1980s. That group included Ayo Thomas, Jide Ogundipe, Iyabo Omomeji, among others. So accepted were they that they toured the then-western states in performances both public and private gigs. The climax of the Ayoro Voices was the recording of their own radio and TV programmes on BCOS, OGTV and NTA Ibadan.
“Femi Ogunrombi collaborated his music talent with some icons of Nigeria folk and Highlife music including Pa Steve Rhodes and Dr Uwajei of the National Troupe of Nigeria.
“His passing today is another Trojan of this national genre of music gone. He will be sorely missed. May God grant his family the fortitude to bear his loss. We won’t forget, Chief Femi Ogunrombi. Rest in music.”
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