A Ugandan gospel singer Onyong Yubu, whose stage name is ‘Prince Yubu,’ allegedly faked his own death and announced it to all his friends through various social media platforms in a bid to gauge his popularity. According to the country's Daily Monitor newspaper report, Prince Yubu pronounced himself dead on Wednesday, February 7, allegedly after “short malaria illness.”
His message which was also circulated across various social media platforms read “Let us pray for Prince Yubu, a gospel artiste, who passed away in hospital. He had severe malaria. He died 20 minutes ago.”
It was however discovered to be false when some investigative Journalists visited to confirm the report. Yubu who said he was aware of obituary on the social media claimed that he was earlier kidnapped by some people who were also behind the fake death message.
According to him, “they tied me up with ropes and took away my cell phone, which they used to send out messages announcing I was dead.” Meanwhile, those close to the singer said he actually pulled the prank to test his popularity.
Reacting to the news about the artist’s purported death, Patrick Akena Ogwal, operation manager at a local radio station, argued that the young artist faked his own demise just to gauge how popular he was on social media.
“What many don’t know yet about Prince Yubu is that he is very cunning. He could have put that thing up to gauge people’s perception about him and his popularity,” Ogwal argued.
