Hoax deaths worrying families

AS the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and its Delta variant takes a firm grip of Eastern Highlands, with infection numbers increasing steadily and deaths filling up mortuaries, some groups of people have turned nasty by hoaxing deaths of some prominent people in the province.
They are bringing people like businessman and community leader Apaso Winchlee Oibotee and former governor Julie Soso and their families unnecessary shocks and heartaches by informing the public that they had died.
Some of Oibotee’s family and relatives, according to practice, had chopped off their finger as part of mourning, he said.
At this time of the Covid-19, people are gullible and deaths are easily believed, he said.
Both, Soso via radio and Oibotee, said they were alive and well and in Oibotee’s case, he was “kicking and not kicked the bucket”.
“It’s just rumours by thoughtless people,” he said.
“There were many stories on the streets of Goroka town, my village in Unggai-Bena, Eastern Highlands, and PNG, even on social media that I was dead – all lies,” he told a media conference in Goroka yesterday.
Oibotee said there were rumours that he had died of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) or the Covid-19 and his children had hidden and buried him.
“I had high blood pressure, admitted to Goroka Hospital and cleared of any medical complications,” he said.
“I paid the airfares for my doctor and we went to Sir Buri Kidu Heart Foundation in Port Moresby.”