Yemi Remi, the elder brother of the late veteran actor Segun ‘Chief Kanran’ Remi, has spoken out to address various misconceptions surrounding his brother’s life and passing.
In a recent interview on Agbaletu TV, Yemi described Chief Kanran, who passed away in August, as “a lovable person,” while noting that his main flaw was not being straightforward about his personal needs, which often led to public misunderstandings.
He also dispelled rumours that the actor died from injuries sustained in a house fire, clarifying that Chief Kanran, 62, was in good health before his death, which reportedly resulted from collapsing in his bathroom.
Yemi, 70, attributed much of the misinformation to his brother’s habit of exaggerating stories about his personal life. “I want to beg people on his behalf. There was a time someone called me to say that his wife had died. I told the person that I was not aware of such a thing. The person wondered why I was not aware. I told the person that it was a lie. His wife did not die,” he said.
He further explained, “What happened was that he had four wives and four children. Three of the wives died. I warned him about the bad things he professed about himself. There was a time when he started saying his car had been burnt, but it was a lie. We were returning from Ibadan one day after he was gifted money to buy a car, and the vehicle’s engine broke down along the way. I told him when he was telling people that his car had been burnt. We later towed the vehicle back to Lagos.”
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Yemi also clarified that the incident involving a fire occurred at a nearby apartment, not his brother’s home. “His house also did not get burnt. It was another apartment close to his house. He had to jump the fence to escape. It was God who saved him at the time,” he said.
The filmmaker added that his brother’s typecast “Chief” roles may have impacted how people perceived him, blurring the line between his on-screen persona and real life. “I told him to learn to be versatile. I told him he didn’t need to be a typecast. He lived a make-believe life, which I will never agree to,” Yemi said.
Yemi himself is a seasoned theatre practitioner, having started under legendary Hubert Ogunde. He trained at the Centre for Cultural Studies and earned scholarships to study in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. He was also the pioneer director of the television drama ‘Tinsel’ and the comic soap opera ‘Face 2 Face’.