Lima, daughter of Nollywood veteran Taiwo Hassan, widely known as Ogogo, has come out swinging against reports claiming her father is dead. After word spread that the actor was fighting cancer, some blogs went further and said he had died after hospitals turned him away. Lima called that report a lie and said her father is still alive.
On Monday night another daughter, Kira, posted an emotional video saying Ogogo is battling stage four cancer and that a hospital refused him chemotherapy. She asked the public to point the family toward anyone who could treat him, whether in a clinic or through traditional care, and she made it plain they were not begging for money. Lima later added that more than one hospital had refused to take him on. Like her sister, she said they needed a doctor, not donations, and she spoke from the heart about not wanting to lose her father.
False death news about celebrities has become far too common. Toyin Abraham recently warned TikTok users posting RIP on her pictures and said she would make an example of one of them. Earlier this year Yul Edochie shut down rumours about his father, Pete Edochie, calling him the Lion of Africa and saying the elder would live well past one hundred. Leo Edochie backed that up, saying their father was strong and in good health.
Veteran Chiwetalu Agu answered his own death rumours with a video of himself eating chicken and drinking wine, saying he would enjoy life until God called him, and that the call was not coming soon. Rita Edochie condemned similar talk about Osita Iheme, popularly called Pawpaw, and said social media had done more harm than good. Years ago Kanayo O. Kanayo cursed people who printed his obituary posters while he was still breathing, asking why access to the internet had become a licence to publish anything. In 2024 a claim that Olu Jacobs had died was knocked down when the family shared a video of the veteran getting a haircut, clearly well and alive.
The actor is ill and the family wants help finding treatment. He is not dead, and spreading that story only adds pain to a house already under strain.
