“Rest in Peace Alex,” fellow actor and producer Funke Akindele posted on social media.<\/p>\n
The pair had acted together in the 2020 comedy Omo Ghetto – The Saga.<\/p>\n
“I tried to reach out. To see you one more time but guess you knew best,” she wrote, adding: “You kept telling me you are fine.”<\/p>\n
“May your kind soul rest in peace Alex. Ore mi like you fondly called me, I will always remember and cherish the good times we shared together.”<\/p>\n
The late actor’s colleague and friend, Godwin Nnadiekwe, called the news of Ekubo’s death heart-breaking.<\/p>\n
“Nollywood has lost a rare soul, and I’m lost for words, because this wasn’t the plan,” he wrote on his Instagram.<\/p>\n
Filmmaker Lancelot Imasuen – who gave Ekubo his first film role – described his passing as “devastating and unbelievable”, Nigeria’s Vanguard news site reports. <\/p>\n
Ekubo himself had stepped away from social media, with his last post appearing in December 2024, sparking concern for his health.<\/p>\n
Born 10 April, 1986 in Nigeria’s Rivers State, the actor received a number of accolades for his work.<\/p>\n
The Nollywood star made his acting debut in the 2005 production, Sinners in the House.<\/p>\n
He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Calabar and broke into stardom in 2010 after competing in the Mr Nigeria competition.<\/p>\n
In 2013, he won Best Supporting Actor in the Best of Nollywood Awards for his role as Andre Dikeh in Weekend Getaway.<\/p>\n
Ekubo had received nine awards during his career, including Best of Nollywood’s Best Actor of the year (2016) and Best Lead Actor (2022).<\/p>\n
Nigeria’s First Lady gave him a Special Recognition Award in 2018 for his contribution and development of the country’s entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
In 2020, he was inducted into the UN’s Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) under 40, for his efforts in entertainment and social development.<\/p>\n
The following year, Ekubo received an honorary doctorate in arts and culture from the Institut Sup\u00e9rieur de Communication et de Gestion in Benin.<\/p>\n
“Tonight is very special and dear to my heart because it’s coming at quite a time,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n
His humanitarian work has also been recognised.<\/p>\n
In 2021, he was given the Nigerian National Award of Excellence as the Global Social Giving Actor of the year for his charity work, according to his website.<\/p>\n
Ekubo was also awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the Sapio Club – a Nigeria-based community proposing solutions to social and national issues – for his contributions, including humanitarian work.<\/p>\n
He briefly courted controversy in 2021 when his fianc\u00e9e, Nigerian-American actress and model Fancy Acholonu, ended their engagement about three months before their wedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Rest in Peace Alex,” fellow actor and producer Funke Akindele posted on social media. The pair had acted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-956902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116566989218226674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}