CITIZENS COMPASS — Popular actor and producer, Osita Iheme also known as Aki Pawpaw, has broken silence on the health condition of his colleague, John Okafor popularly known as Mr. Ibu.

This comes a few weeks after the comic actor went public about his ailment, on October 18, when he made a passionate appeal and announced a fundraiser to offset his medical bills at a Lagos hospital.

Mr Iheme who played the well-known ‘Pawpaw’ character alongside Mr Okafor is optimistic that his colleague who is currently undergoing treatment will recover soon.

Speaking at the recently concluded AMAAs in Nigeria, he explained that “Sickness is something that can come upon anybody and anybody can fall sick at any time. We thank God for life and for keeping us alive.

“By God’s grace, he is receiving treatment right now and he will be fine. I have been talking to him for a while now, the sickness is not just something that just started today. It has been a long. We have been talking about it,” he said.

He said he had been hospitalized for two weeks because of a “strange and dangerous illness”.

The actor, who turned 62 in October, also said the doctor had hinted that his legs might be amputated.

In the video, Mr Ibu, who was in the company of his wife and daughter, said: “As I speak to you, I am still lying down in the hospital; the medical director of this hospital said that the best solution is that, in case his new idea didn’t work, the best idea is to cut off my leg.”

Actor John Okafor is popular for playing the role of Mr Ibu in 2004. He also ventured into music for a short period and released songs titled ‘This Girl’ and ‘Do You Know’ in 2020.