A Nigerian whose picture featured in the press as one of the victims of the January 8 Ukrainian aircraft accident in Iran has denied the report of his purported death.
It would be recalled that some days after the tragic incident in Iran, some bloggers and national dailies reported one Dauda Onoruoiza from Kogi State was one of the 176 victims of the aircraft accident.
The reports said the Kogi-born victim was working with American aircraft manufacturers, Boeing before the fatal crash occurred.
He was also reported to have been on a three-month training with Boeing in Ukraine and was attached to the Boeing 737-800 aircraft to study its mechanical noise and report back to the company ahead of its maintenance scheduled for January 13 in Ukraine.
The picture of the ‘dead’ man in the report was that of Mr. Olayinka Benard Adeleye who is the head of Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps in Odi Olowo Ojuwoye, Mushin.
Speaking at a press conference held in Lagos on Wednesday, Adeleye said he was shocked by the news of his purported death published on January 10 which coincided with the day he celebrated his birthday.
He said he had never travelled outside Nigeria since he was born.
Adeleye who wore the same T-shirt in the picture to confirm that he was the person with a different name in the news story said: “I am head of the Lagos Neighbourhood Corps. I have never boarded and aircraft since I was born, never travelled out of the country. I was born and raised in Mushin. The report used my picture with another person’s name. It was unfortunate and embarrassing.”
He said the report was devastating, especially, to his mother who fainted when she was told that her son had died.
“They initially told my mother that I died in a motor accident. Later, they said it was in an aircraft. I had to rush to meet my mother and told her that I was alive and that I was not involved in any accident,” he added.
He also said he had suffered alienation as people were scared of him.
“After the publication of my ‘death’, I went to work and when my colleagues saw me they were scared. They told me I had died.
“When I go out people who walk past be would turn back and whisper ‘that is a dead man walking.’ Consequently, I have resorted to wearing face cap whenever I go out,” he said.
He said he had instructed his lawyer to take action against the media houses that published his picture as a dead man.
Also speaking, Adeleye’s counsel, Mr. Femi Martins described the publications as “the height of irresponsible blogging and journalism.”
He said he would take up the matter legally is the media houses refuse to retract the publication.
“This kind of situation is criminal in nature. We have written to a number bloggers and media outfits (that carried the report) and we are expecting their responses.
“We told settlement terms one of which is a retraction of the story.
“We gave them an ultimatum of seven days from the time of receipt of the letter. We are still looking at issues; we don’t want to preempt anything.
“One of the media house refused to take our letter insisting that our client should come to their office. We have written to them and we will take it from there,” he said.
