Claim: A viral post on Facebook claims that famous actor Lateef Adedimeji is dead.
Verdict: FALSE. Our findings and comments from Mr Adedimeji’s close friend showed that the death claim is false.
Full Text
Lateef Adedemeji, nicknamed “the crying machine,” is an award-winning actor and seasoned movie producer from Abeokuta in Ogun State. He began acting at the age of 15 and has featured in over 100 movies to date.
A Facebook user, Kabiru Usman, took to his page on May 3, 2023, to post a video about the Nollywood actor with RIP (rest in peace) written over the video. In a 19-second video, Mr Kabiru used eight of Mr Adedimeji’s pictures with a sentence that says, “May your soul rest in perfect peace the Nigerian actor known as Lateef Adedimeji,” suggesting the popular actor is dead.
The post, which has gone viral, has garnered 1,100,000 views, 980,000 likes and 7,000 comments.
The virality of the claim, the sensitive nature of this post and the personality involved made us at DUBAWA investigate this claim.
Verification
We went through the social media accounts of Mr Adedimeji and discovered that he has a recent post from Sunday, May 14, 2023, on his Instagram page.
“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment,” the caption of his post reads.
We also went through his Twitter account @TheDimejiLateef and discovered that his last tweet was the same as his post from Instagram.
We also conducted a keyword search on the alleged death and found nothing of such in credible news media.
DUBAWA also contacted Juliana Olayode, a close friend of the actor, who told us that the actor is hale and hearty.
“He is not dead. These people should stop the rumours! What kind of nonsense is that?” she queried.
Ms Juliana also shared a video they took on set together on Monday, May 16, 2023.
Conclusion
Our findings and comments from Mr Adedimeji’s close friend showed that the death claim is false.
