Mr. Olayinka Bernard Adeleye, whose picture was recently used as a Nigerian who was involved in the the Ukranian flight that was shot down by an Iranian missile on January 7, 2020 killing all 176 passengers and crew members, has denied being one of the victims, saying he is alive and kicking.
He said the news of his death has left him and his family with scars which would take a long time to heal.
It would be recalled that several Nigerian newspapers and some online reports had claimed a Nigerian identified as Dauda Onoruoiza, was among the victims of the ill-fated flight.
The alleged Nigerian was said to be a worker of Boeing, the American plane maker, and was seconded to undergo a training with the Ukrainian airliner.
In the report, the picture of Mr. Adeleye was used by some newspaper and online platforms.
However, facts revealed that no Nigerian actually died in the plane crash as the manifest of the victims revealed.
According to the manifest released by the Iranian authorities, 82 Iranians and 63 Canadians were on board the Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) Flight PS752.
There were also 11 victims – including nine crew members – from Ukraine, four Afghans, four Britons and three Germans.
Adeleye who spoke with newsmen on Wednesday said he was not only devastated by the news, his mother fainted when friends, colleagues and other family members besieged her to break the news of his son’s demise.
He said any time he walked past the streets or through his neighbourhood, people take a second look at him, thinking he was a dead man.
The middle-aged man wore the same shirt on the picture used to confirm that he was the person in the fake publication which trended on social media last week.
“I now wear face cap to cover my face when I walk on the street because I was being called a Dead Man Walking,” he said.
According to him, the picture that was used was taken on his birthday with wife and after the publication, he received many calls from friends and other family members who inquired when he traveled out of the country and started working for Boeing as a trainee.
Counsel to Mr. Adeyeye, Femi Martins, described the report as a national embarrassment and admonished journalists and bloggers to always do the due diligence of verification before rushing to press.
