Actor Segun Arinze has stated that false reports about his health were used to drive social media engagement.
The 59-year-old addressed the issue in an interview with QED.ng publisher Olumide Iyanda, after earlier dismissing rumours that he was battling an illness and in need of financial assistance.
Concerns had arisen after images of Segun from a movie set surfaced online, alongside fake reports from bloggers claiming he was ill and needed financial assistance.
Explaining the origin of the misinformation, he said, “A girl called Sarah started it. I was on set, they were filming, and the costumier—social media has become a dumping ground for so many things, and a lot of callous and mischievous things are being done there.
“There was a picture of me where the costumier was helping me take my costume off. I had to take a breather, I sat down, and you noticed I had a red bead on my hand. She took the picture, yanked it from the costumier’s page, doctored it by removing where the costumier was assisting me, and left only the part where I was sitting and taking off my clothes. Then she said her enemy is sick.”
Segun said he initially ignored the post but was forced to react after receiving numerous calls from concerned friends, family, and colleagues.
“I first wrote to the girl saying, ‘Can you pull this down because I am not sick, I am not ill in any way,'” he said.
By the time he reached out, the images had already circulated widely, with people spinning their own narratives.
“I won’t lie to you, Olumide, I got very angry, very, very angry. If I had seen her physically, only God knows what I would have done to her. When she realised it was serious, she sent a message on my page saying, ‘My sincere apologies, sir.'”
The apology did little to pacify the actor as he believed she was merely using him to gain social media traction.
Realising that the rumour was still spreading, Segun posted a video on his page clarifying that he was in good health and warning people against sending money to anyone on his behalf.
The actor also called for stricter social media regulations, saying, “Not censoring them in terms of material, but there has to be a way of regulating it, the way we do our NIN and BVN. The Nigerian government needs to take it seriously through the Ministry of Communications. Everybody must have their NIN and BVN linked to their page, so when false news comes out, we know where to direct it.”
Addressing claims that he orchestrated the controversy to promote a film, he said, “Why would I do that? If I want to promote a film, I would do it in a decent way. Why would I use sickness to promote a film? Isn’t that madness?”
On taking legal action, he said, “I thought about it. But how many people do you want to sue? Everybody took it from someone else. If the person who started it denies it and others claim they got it from somewhere, how many people do you want to sue? I leave them to God. If she is looking for sickness, she will get sickness.”
Segun concluded by explaining why the incident affected him deeply.
“This was about health; this was about falsehood. It has a domino effect. When people do things like this, they forget that the individuals they target have families, relatives, and friends. It can even affect job opportunities because a director might assume the person is truly sick.”
