Veteran Broadcaster and Nollywood actor, Sadiq Daba, has died at the age of 69. He was confirmed dead on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 after a long battle with leukaemia and prostate cancer.
Filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, with whom he worked recently on the 2020 motion picture, Citation, confirmed speaking with Sadiq’s wife and son about his passing. He is said to have died on Wednesday at about 8:30 pm.
According to one of his close associates, Joe Odumakin, “We have lost Sadiq. It is so painful because I spoke to him a few days ago when his wife became a permanent secretary.
“I called his number some hours ago but his son picked it. I told him to give the phone to his father but he told me that his father is gone. I had to ask; gone to where?”
“His wife just called me now and we spoke. She said that she was at the morgue. I asked what happened and she told me that about a week ago, he had been ill but he had been home and that he went to the hospital late afternoon today.
“She explained that he had not been eating much and that as soon as they got to the hospital, they started conducting different tests on him including COVID-19. They put him on oxygen but he died around 8:30 pm.”
In 2017, Daba announced that he had been diagnosed with Leukaemia and prostate cancer and was supported with fundraising by several Nigerians.
With outpouring of support and best wishes on social media, many well-meaning Nigerians, including billionaire Femi Otedola, donated money for his treatment abroad.
However, the actor’s health became huge source of concern for many over the last few years and he was even on the verge of losing one eye in year 2020.
Before his eventual demise, Daba worked with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and his acting career blossomed in the late 1970s, when he starred in the epic soap opera, Cockcrow at Dawn.
Aside making waves in the 1980s on NTA as an ace broadcaster, he featured in several TV series as well as blockbuster movies, like Citation and October 1, among others.
