Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka is not dead, his son has confirmed.
This comes after an account supposedly belonging to Abdulrazak Gurnar, winner of the 2021 Nobel prize for literature, said Soyinka is dead.
“I got a call from Nigeria. Wole Soyinka died suddenly a few minutes ago. A terrible news,” the post on Monday, October 11 read.
The post garnered over 150 retweets and 250 likes in a short while with some expressing their condolences .
But Soyinka’s son, Ilemakin, laughed off the rumors.
“The rumour has been going round since last week. Soyinka is alive when last I checked,” he said to THECableNg.
The account already has 14,000 followers.
In announcing Gurnah’s Nobel prize win on Friday, the 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.
As at press time, all tweets on the said account have been deleted.