Middle aged applicant dies in Ikoyi Passport office

A middle aged man who had applied for the Nigerian international passport has died at the Nigerian Immigration Service Passport office, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Findings have it that the applicant arrived the passport office at about 7am in company with his wife and they were asked to wait till 9am when they would be attended to.

After hours of waiting, the man it was gathered became restless and started complaining of severe heat and discomfort.

Eye witness account has it that the man had insisted he be the first to be attended to.

The deceased later requested to use the rest room which he did but slumped there.

A man who was present at the scene of the incident but chose to speak anonymously said: “He was walking up and down complaining that he should be attended to as he and his wife arrived the passport office before other applicants the officers were attending to.

“We told him that even though he came early, our official resumption time is 9am, but he would not listen. Along the line, he said we should show him the toilet and we did.

“After about 20 minutes, his wife became worried that he has not come out from the toilet, but we calmed her down and our toilet attendants were asked to monitor the man.

After about 40 minutes, we knocked several times and he did not respond. We tried to open the door, but it was locked from the inside. The mistake was that we should have forced the door open, but we were warned by our superior not to break the door until the police arrived the scenes.

“The police later arrived and forced the door to the toilet open. What we saw was gory. He had removed his clothes and he was sitting on the stool, but he was dead. He died few minutes before we opened the door, maybe he would have survived if we had rushed him to the hospital”.

A witness said there was pandemonium as people scampered for safety as the dead body was brought out from the toilet.

Confirming the story, the Passport Controller in charge of Ikoyi Passport office, (PCO) Mani Yari, said: “Yes it is the true, an applicant died in our Toilet. He came to our office with his wife.

“There was no queue, as he did not come to collect Passport .We attend to visitors as from 9am. From 9am, we started attending to the applicants. Along the line, the deceased said he wanted to ease himself.

“It was after about 40 minutes that the wife started raising the alarm that her husband had not come back from the toilet. We thought it was the normal panic from a woman.

But when we arrived the scene and he did not open the door, we called the police who came and forced the door open and we saw the lifeless body.”

He further stated that the body has been deposited at a government hospital for autopsy.