Adebayo Faleti Debunks Sickness Rumour “I’m Not Dead, I’m Alive & Well”

May 4th, 2014 – Adebayo Faleti Debunks Sickness Rumour “I’m Not Dead, I’m Alive & Well”

Veteran writer, poet and actor, Alagba Adebayo Faleti, has described as damaging a recent publication titled: “Veteran Actor Adebayo Faleti Dying!… As Actors Rally Round To Help Him” in the Tuesday, April 22 edition of Global Excellence, a weekly journal.

Obviously miffed, the octogenarian poet recalled that the story was generated after a visit by a new Yoruba movie group, The Movie Ambassadors, led by popular actor, Saidi Balogun, to his Ojoo, Ibadan home in Oyo State, recently.

However, Faleti, who expressed his gratitude for the gesture, said he could only recognise two people out of the about 12 or 15 members who visited them.

In a press statement signed by him and obtained by our correspondent, he said: “They took photographs with me in turns, in my room, in my casual wear. They promised to send something to me shortly and they went away. By Wednesday of the following week, they sent Yemi Amodu to me with thirty thousand naira to buy provision, and I thanked them. This was the good side of the story.

“I want to state that as a man who, in my active years, has sown into the society, people do visit me from time to time and from far and wide-from Nigeria to the United Kingdom to America and the rest of the world. When they come, they bring gifts and I believe, it is not out of place for me to accept such gifts. This year alone, I have granted various kinds of interviews, ranging from individual interviews for Master’s thesis to Ph. D thesis to newspaper interviews.”

He, however, expressed shock that a reporter with Global Excellence, whom he didn’t know was among the visitors, had literally turned facts and realities upside down.

According to him, “It carried the picture of my casual wear with my lean frame in juxtaposition with an old photograph of mine in a gorgeous mood. And in the middle of the story, the paper said the actors (that is, the Movie Ambassadors) paid some of my hospital bills.

“This is really insulting, showing a total lack of good sense and judgment. One would not have minded this GLOBAL in-eptitude to pass, if its effect will not damage my reputation and make me look mean in the eyes of those who have been spending millions of naira in money and materials to keep me alive. These include my children, top government functionaries, businessmen and friends.

“If it is true The Movie Ambassadors paid my hospital bill as this paper reported, how much did they pay? To which hospital did they pay it? What is the receipt number? Was I met in a hospital? Or is my house, my bedroom, the hospital?”

While expressing his regret for allowing what he called “an uncultured rabble into my bed room to take pictures with me”, he said the association should not be a platform to damage anyone’s image.

The statement further said: “Even though I am a very old man, I am not yet “dying” as claimed by the magazine; that my children are responsible children as they are always around at my beck and call to attend to my needs; that I have not, in any way, solicited and I will not solicit for any financial assistance from Nigerians through any group of people. On my part, I have forgiven them as a father. However, I cannot prevent my children from looking at the legal side of the matter.”

Here is the false report by Global Excellence:

An accomplished and renowned poet, playwright, producer, broadcaster and actor, Faleti had started writing poems in earnest and they include Ijamba Odo Oba, Alagbara Ile ati Alagbara Oko and  Adebimpe Ojedokun and more so. The octogenarian Chief Adebayo Faleti is also known for being a successful Yoruba translator, a broadcaster, TV exponent and a pioneer of the first television station in Africa, Western Nigeria Television (WNTV). Information reaching us has it that, the talented actor who has featured in several stages and home videos is critically ill and needs support from Nigerians. At the moment, we gathered that the new faction of theater group visited the veteran actor because of his new state of health. It was said that the The Movie Ambassadors President, Saidi Balogun and his Exco visited Faleti at his residence in Ibadan and paid some of his hospital bills and promised to buy some of his scripts and make a movie on it and sell it to fetch him some money.

[The Nation]