Sam Loco: Fondly missed by many

Aki & Paw paw will greatly miss him

Sam Loco Efe, a household figure whose screen command with grammatical vocabulary drilled the hearts and mind of ardent followers of the Nigerian movie industry. He was an actor and comedian and has for many years distinguished himself as a rare talent for both television and stage drama.

Late Samuel Efeeimwonkiyeke, who coined his stage name Loco from locomotive, due to his skills in football during his days at Eghosa Grammar School in Benin City and admiration for Locomotive Moscow football club. 

In his words, "My surname...(means) wealth has no time limit. One can be wealthy at 90 when people must have lost hope. What actually happened was that my grandmother was having only female children and after so many years, she gave birth to my father at an old age and when he arrived, the name given to him is 'you see now my wealth has finally arrived.' I later inherited this from my father as I was the last of my parents children and the only male child."

 He was married to Ologboshere Oshodin but the union did not live long enough to weather the storm that bombarded their marriage but were blessed with a son, Sam Efe Jr., and two daughters, before Sam Loco parted ways with Ologboshere, now deceased.

Memories of Sam Loko Efe splashed every nook and cranny of Nigeria and beyond its borders after demise in while on a movie set in Owerri on the 7th of August 2011. In one of the comments  published on 234Next.com an in-laws was quoted as follow "he and Sam Loco were good friends when Sam was working at the then Dunlop Factory in Benin, while his sister, Ologboshere was a student at Itohan Grammar School in the same city. Other sources close to the Oshodin family however told NEXT that the family members are not very happy with the late actor for the way he “neglected” their sister and her three children. 'I don’t want to talk to you because that man never had time for my sister. Because of my relationship with him, he got my sister impregnated while she was a student at Itohan Grammar School. Due to our friendship, I allowed him to marry her. At the end he neglected them and the woman died at last. Ologboshere had remarried and was living in the United States at the time of her death.' Continuing, the brother-in-law said, 'Sam Loco never played any role in caring for [his first family]. Well, it is bad to talk evil of the death, but he never meant well for us. For many years now, we the in-laws have not seen him. He has no house in Benin. But we learnt he has one in Lagos and another in Abakaliki, where he equally has a farm. I have been calling his son, Sam Loco Jr, to come to Benin to settle the problem his father had with his wife. But as I talk to you now, he never showed up. I was told few minutes ago that the boy has traveled to Owerri where the father died. When the daughter wanted to marry about three years ago, he told the daughter to come to Enugu for the marriage... But it is sad that he is dead." Others like Nosa Ada Peaceman (Kako in Sam Loco’s FESTAC 77 play) also commented “We grew up together; we were in ‘Langbodo’ together in 1977. He played young Akara-Ogun and I was Kako. When we returned, we did a two-man play which we took round the country. We have always live together. I still cannot believe that he is dead.” Moses Obakpolor (Friend of Sam Loco) “Nothing annoys him, he is a joker whenever he is around, and he dines with us all. He brought me up, he taught me how to act, and today I am a professional. Sam Loco did it all for me.”

Langbodo, a national production was considered by Sam Loco as his first truly well (and most) paid job as he was treated like an egg  through out the production due to his lead role.