Rebecca Ikumelo: Autism Advocate, Nursing Graduate. Here’s Everything We Know About Victim Of Asake’s London Concert Crush
The death of Rebecca Oluwatosin Ikumelo, one of those injured in the crowd crush at the London concert headlined by Nigerian singer Ahmed ‘Asake’ Ololade on Thursday, December 15, 2022, has continued to spark reactions from friends and members of the public.
The Metropolitan Police of London, on Saturday, December 17, 2022, announced Ikumelo’s death.
“Sadly, one of the women who was critically injured, died at hospital on the morning of Saturday, 17 December. She is Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, of Newham. Specialist officers are continuing to provide support to her family,” a statement by Met Police read.
The statement added “a post-mortem examination will be held on Sunday, 18 December, at Greenwich Public Mortuary. Two other women – aged 21 and 23 – remain in a critical condition.”
Police were called to the venue of Asake’s concert at the O2 Academy Brixton in London on Thursday night after a crowd crush left eight people injured. Police said three of the eight injured were in critical condition. Ikumelo was one of the three in critical condition.
In multiple footage shared online and seen by Neusroom, Police could be seen trying to disperse the crown from the 4,921-capacity venue after the concert was cancelled a few minutes after Asake started performing.
33-year-old Ikumelo was an alumnus of The Royal Docks Community School in Newham. A family statement also said she was a graduate of nursing. “An adorable mother of two children who loved working with kids.”
“She was well respected in the family for her care, kindness and love,” the statement added.
A source close to the family told Neusroom that Ikuemelo, born to Nigerian parents, grew up in the United Kingdom with her family.
“I’ve known the family for over a decade,” said the source who does not want to be mentioned.
A single mother of two boys ages seven and four, before her death, she was a leading advocate for autism, and she used her YouTube channel and other social media platforms to raise awareness on autism.
In the first episode of her series on autism, she said she decided to start the channel because of her autistic sons Jamal and Joel.
“The reason why I wanted to start it (YouTube channel) was just to kind of bring awareness to delayed speech. My eldest who’s four, I kind of noticed when he was two years old…he’s not saying much words and I had other friends that had children his age…I didn’t think it was an issue, but they said to me he should be saying about at least 20 words for his age…when he was about two and a half, he started speech therapy but there wasn’t really much they did with him because he was still quite young. It was just more play-based than speech therapy, and I didn’t really see any progress from there,” she said in the first video posted on her YouTube channel on November 29, 2020.
Ikumelo said her second son who started speaking early and didn’t show any sign of delayed speech in his first year suddenly started copying his elder brother and that was how she ended up with two children with delayed speech.
“He hadn’t started nursery yet, so Jamal was the only kind of role model he had or the only friend he had to look up to, so he was copying a lot of the stuff that Jamal did. So obviously now it’s starting to have an impact on Joel and his development and that’s a big issue for me because obviously now I only don’t have one child that is refusing to speak I’ve got two and that hinders their progress,” Ikumelo said.
“That’s the main reason why I wanted to start this channel because I don’t know anyone else in my position that has two young children that both have delayed speech and I just thought maybe if I start this then I can get advice from others that may be going through the same thing.”
In a series of videos seen by Neusroom on her YouTube channel, Ikumelo shared moments with her sons and said the channel will also help her monitor their progress.
In the last video posted on her TikTok page three days before her death, an excited Ikumelo could be seen having a conversation with her son Jamal.
“To think just a year ago he was non-verbal and now I can have a conversation with him. His progress honestly keeps me going every day,” she wrote in the caption.
Ikumelo’s uncle Temitope Olodo who shared a tribute on social media described the deceased as a his ‘favourite niece’
He wrote: “O Tosin! You are so full of life and very protective of me. You have a smile that brightens up the room! I am so sad.”
Olodo is yet to respond to Nesuroom’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, Asake, in his reaction to Ikumelo’s death, said he is devastated.
“I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening,” he said in a statement on Instagram on Saturday evening.
