Gospel singer's son shares family's ongoing pain over father's disappearance

Budding gospel artist Lekan Remilekun has opened up about his father, veteran gospel musician Remilekun Amos, who went missing in 2000.

Before he vanished, Mr Amos was well-known in the gospel music scene for his ministry and performances at Christian events all over southwestern Nigeria.

Lekan shared that his family has spent the last 26 years looking for answers after the respected singer disappeared during a gospel mission.

In a recent talk on the Talk To B Podcast, Lekan recounted how his father went missing and how it has affected the family even after all these years.

He explained that his father traveled to Akure, the capital of Ondo State, in November 2000 after getting an invitation to minister at a Christian gathering.

Lekan said that trip was the last time anyone in the family heard from the veteran gospel singer, and they still don’t know where he is.

Reflecting on this painful experience, Lekan said the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to his father is harder to cope with than if he had died.

“My father, Remilekun Amos, was declared missing when he went for that missionary journey in November 2000, and that was the end,” he said.

He added that his father went to Akure to minister but never came back home.

Using a popular Yoruba saying, he described the suffering the family has faced for over two decades.

“A Yoruba proverb says, ‘Omo ẹni kú, ó sàn ju ọmọ ẹni sọnù lọ,’ meaning a dead child is better than a missing child, and twenty-six years counting now. My children are asking me to tell them about Grandpa. No one can feel the pain more than the victim, which is me.”

Living without closure

Lekan said that time has not eased the family’s grief.

Instead, he noted that the emotional weight has become heavier as a new generation of the family asks about a grandfather they never met.

He explained that living without knowing what happened to his father has robbed the family of the closure that usually comes with loss.

According to him, this uncertainty has been one of the heaviest emotional burdens he has carried throughout his life.

A respected gospel musician

Mr Amos’s disappearance in November 2000 shocked family, friends, and the Christian community who knew him. Despite the 26 years that have passed, no official explanation has come out about what happened to him.

For Lekan, this mystery is very personal.

Although he has started his own career in gospel music, he said the memory of his father still influences his life, while the family’s search for answers is far from over.