By our reporter/ Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, is alive, his son Ilemakin, has confirmed.
An account supposedly belonging to Abdulrazak Gurnar, winner of the 2021 Nobel prize for literature, had on Monday said Soyinka is dead.
The account has since been deleted.
“I got a call from Nigeria. Wole
Soyinka died suddenly a few minutes ago. A terrible news,” the post read.
The post garnered over 150 retweets and 250 likes in a short while.
But when his family was contacted, Ilemakin, his son, laughed it off.
“The rumour has been going round since last week. Soyinka is alive when last I checked,” he said.
The account which made the post was created in August 2021 and already has 14,000 followers.
In announcing Gurnah’s Nobel prize win on Friday, BBC had tagged the fake account, but Lola Shoneyin, Nigerian author, quoted the tweet, pointing out that Gurnah is not Twitter user.
“During my short exchange with Prof Abdulrazak Gurnah a few minutes ago, he stated, I am not a Twitter user. Please take note,” the post reads.
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