Pictures of the unofficial world's oldest man has emerged in Brazil with evidence showing the man is about 131 years old and still lives with his wife.
Joao Coelho de Souza is alleged to be the world's oldest man
Judging by his age, OAP Joao Coelho de Souza is probably the world's oldest man.
According to reports, the 131-year-old dad-of-three is living with a wife 69 years his junior. The first pictures of the oldest man was made public by social security workers in Acre in the north of Brazil who published photos of OAP Joao Coelho de Souza alongside a birth certificate dated March 10 1884. The document proved that he was born in the city of Meruoca in Ceara nearly 2,000 miles to the east of Acre.
A colleague of a civil servant who made a routine visit to confirm he was still alive and therefore eligible for his pension posted the information on his Facebook. He called on the state government to confirm the find and register Joao for the Guinness Book of Records, Mirror reports.
Brazilian papers today said he lived with a wife aged 62 and a granddaughter aged 16 in a village called Estirao do Alcantara, a 30-minute boat ride away from Sena Madureira, a municipality in the centre of the state of Acre.
Passport picture showing evidence of Souza's age
His daughter Cirlene Souza, aged only 30 which would mean if his age was right that Joao was 101 when she was born, told one paper: “He has days when he is lucid but others when he doesn’t even recognise his children.
“He was very small when he came to work in Acre extracting rubber.
“He has been with my mum for more than 40 years and depends on others for everything.”
Responding to doubts about her dad's age, she added: “You hear everything, people that criticise and say it’s a lie and others that admire the fact someone can live so long.
“It’s sometimes offends me because everything is documented and the documents have already been examined by experts at to see if they’d been falsified and nothing abnormal was found.”
Cirlene said Joao suffered a stroke six years ago but continued to eat three times a day. His favourite dishes are rice, fish and meat and the only thing he turns his nose up at is a local bean-based dish called feijao.
A copy showing evidence of his date of birth
Kennedy Afonso is the social security worker who posted photos of Joao and his birth certificate taken by a colleague on his Facebook on January 11.
He said: “I’ve asked one of his children if anyone’s interviewed him and to my astonishment no-one has yet.
“The question ‘where are our historians’ immediately springs to mind.
“According to a son he is still quite lucid and has a great story to tell.
“I present to you Jose Coelho de Souza, who came to Acre when he was 11.
“I appeal to the state government and the local government in Sena Madureira to determine with the competent bodies whether this is true so they can claim a place in the Guinness Book of Records for the oldest man on the Earth. And he’s from our region.”