It was a sad dat at the Ikoyi Passport office of the Nigerian Immigration Service after an applicant seeking Nigerian international passport slumped and died.
The incident threw both Immigration officers as well as other passport applicants into confusion as to what to do next.
It was gathered that the applicant had arrived the passport office at about 7.am accompanied by his wife.
Another account also revealed that the couple were asked to wait along with others till 9.am when the office would be open to members of the public.
It was gathered that the man became restless around I0.am, when he started complaining of severe heat and discomfort.
He later requested to use the rest room.
An eye witness who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “He was walking up and down complaining that he should be attended to as he and his wife arrive 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 9.am, but he would not listen. Along the line, he said we should show him the toilet and we showed him.
“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 had 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.”
“Another witness said there was pandemonium as people scampered for safety as the dead body was brought out from the toilet.
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 9.am. As from 9.am, 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 that we called the police who came and bust the door open and we saw the lifeless body. The body has been deposited at a government hospital for autopsy.” He narrated.
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