Angela Okorie Fires Back at Critics Over Ritual Burning of Alexx Ekubo’s Funeral Dress, Saying Outfit Was Disposed in Owerri

The Nollywood entertainment landscape has locked into an intense digital face-off after controversial actress and singer Angela Okorie released an uncompromising media brief to address public criticism over her viral decision to ceremonially burn the clothing she wore to the burial of her late colleague, Alexx Ekubo.

The high-visibility lifestyle confrontation unzipped on Tuesday morning, June 23, 2026, completely dominating regional pop-culture tracking logs. The dramatic controversy initialized on Sunday after the 40-year-old screen diva uploaded a video clip to her Instagram page showing the physical destruction of her funeral dress, a display that many observers heavily criticized as insensitive given that the bereaved family is still actively mourning the movie star, who was laid to rest on Thursday, June 18, in Arochukwu, Abia State, following a battle with metastatic kidney cancer.

According to the statutory baseline parameters of her initial post, Okorie maintained that her actions were guided entirely by traditional and spiritual layout protocols. She disclosed that her godmother and a family elder had explicitly instructed her that keeping garments worn to the burial of a youth around one’s living space attracts severe negative energy fields, making immediate burning mandatory to secure a protective shield of long life.

However, the disclosure instantly triggered a volatile wave of internet skepticism. Hundreds of critics quickly unzipped an apparent logical contradiction in her ritual execution manual, mockingly asking why the actress chose to preserve the expensive wig, designer sunglasses, shoes, and luxury jewelry she wore alongside the dress at the cemetery. Others labeled the social media broadcast an absolute lack of emotional intelligence.

Refusing to yield to the online bullying, Angela Okorie returned to her digital handles to deliver a fierce, direct policy statement to silence her detractors.

“Oh well, those who know, know my message out here is not to stir up whatever because I know you idiots will interpret it wrongly,” Angela Okorie unzipped with absolute candor inside her revised corporate brief. “But it is ‘To Whom It May Concern.’ Anyways, suit yourselves. I gave the outfit I wore to the burial to my aunt in Owerri to burn it for me; I didn’t even go to Lagos with it. And this information is for some of you talking trash. You had better shut up your mouths and understand that the family and loved ones are still grieving. Be careful what you say out there, Ndi iberibe (foolish people).”

Cultural and sociological analysts tracking the entertainment grid have noted that while Okorie’s decision to air the intimate ritual on a public feed was bound to generate friction, the practice of discarding or burning funeral garments remains deeply rooted in various subnational traditions across southern Nigeria. Supporters of the actress insisted that her primary manual was simply to educate her followers on protective ancestral customs, rather than disrespecting the memory of her late colleague.

As the industry continues to process the heavy loss of Ekubo—whose extensive filmography served as a major creative pillar for the sector over the last decade—industry veterans have highly appealed to all factions to lower the media volume.