By Amofokhai Williams
Nollywood is mourning veteran Yoruba actor Taiwo Hassan, popularly known as Ogogo, following the announcement of his death by his daughter, Kaira Taiwo.
Kaira reportedly confirmed the development during a live session on Instagram, bringing a heartbreaking end to a desperate family effort to save the veteran actor after he was diagnosed with stage-four cancer.
The reported death comes only days after Ogogo’s daughters, Kaira and Lima Taiwo, made emotional public appeals for urgent medical assistance for their father.
The appeals had thrown the actor’s health condition into the public spotlight, with the family seeking help from medical professionals, hospitals and others who could provide possible treatment options.
Kaira had disclosed that doctors told the family that chemotherapy could no longer be administered because of the advanced stage of his illness. The family subsequently explored other possible avenues of treatment.
The family’s desperation was evident in the emotional appeals made on social media, with Kaira pleading for anyone capable of helping her father to come forward.
She had also expressed deep distress over seeing her father in severe pain, while revealing that he was afraid of dying.
The development is particularly poignant because, only days earlier, the family had been forced to dismiss reports circulating on social media that Ogogo had already died.
Lima Taiwo had described those reports as false and urged members of the public to stop spreading unverified information.
Ogogo’s reported death therefore comes after a brief but intense period in which his family publicly sought every possible avenue to prolong his life.
The veteran actor, one of the prominent figures in Yoruba-language cinema, had built a career spanning more than four decades and appeared in more than 300 films, according to reports.
His career included acting, producing and directing, with his performances making him a recognisable figure among generations of Nigerian movie audiences.
His recent screen credits included Aníkúlápó, in which he played the Alaafin Ademuyiwa, as well as Aníkúlápó: Rise of the Spectre.
The actor’s final days, as described publicly by his daughters, were marked by an increasingly difficult battle against cancer and a family’s frantic search for medical help.
