Hyacinth Chinweuba
An applicant, seeking Nigerian international passport has reportedly died at the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Passport office, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The applicant was said to have arrived at the passport office at about 7.am in company of his wife and they were asked to wait till 9.am before they would be attended to.
However, at about I0.am, the man became restless and started complaining of severe heat and discomfort, and requested to use the restroom.
An eyewitness 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 that were being 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 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 a few minutes before we opened the door, maybe he would have survived if we had rushed him to the hospital”‘ an official said.
A 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 truth, 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 at 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 autospy.