Veteran actor Segun Arinze has expressed his frustration over false reports circulating on social media that claimed he was ill and in need of financial assistance.
In an interview with QEDNG, Arinze revealed that the rumor originated from a woman who shared a doctored photo of him taken from a movie set.
The image was manipulated to make it appear as though he was sick, sparking widespread concern.
Initially dismissing the post, Arinze said he was forced to respond after receiving numerous calls from worried friends, family, and colleagues.
He admitted feeling angry and even tempted to confront the individual behind the rumor but ultimately chose to clarify the situation through a video, reassuring everyone that he was in good health.
“A girl 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.
“I first wrote to the girl saying, ‘Can you pull this down because I am not sick, I am not ill in any way.
“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” ,he said.
Arinze also called for stricter social media regulations, suggesting that users should be required to link their accounts to their national identification number (NIN) and bank verification number (BVN).
This, he believes, would help to prevent the spread of false information online.
“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”, he said.
Read Also: I dislike being typecast as an actor – Segun Arinze
The actor denied claims that he orchestrated the controversy to promote a film, calling the idea “madness.”
“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?”, he said.
He also decided against taking legal action, saying that he would “leave them to God.”
“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”, he said.
