Nigerian ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire is dead

Ibrahim Isah, Nigeria’s ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, is dead. Some officials at the foreign affairs ministry confirmed this on Wednesday.

Quoting sources from the Nigerian Embassy at Deux Plateau, Abidjan, NAN said Isah, aged 60, died at 7pm on Tuesday.

The sources said he slumped and died at the Polyclinique Internationale Sainte Anne-Marie (PISAM) where he had gone to see his doctors.

The interim chairman of Nigerian community in Cote d’Ivoire, Musudi Akanfe, told NAN that the entire embassy had been thrown into mourning over the death.

“We are already in a mourning mood, we received this sad news with rude shock, we pray God to console the family and the Nigerian community,’’ he said.

Speaking to NAN by telephone, Bright Moses, the former president, Nigerian Youths in Cote d’Ivoire, described the death as “shocking and painful”.

“He was a very lively and proactive diplomat, he listened to the plight of the Nigerian people in this country, this is very shocking,’’ he said.

Isah, born in 1959 in Niger state, held a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and a master’s degree in international law and diplomacy from the University of Lagos.

He joined the foreign service in 1983 and was posted to Cote D’Ivoire in 2017.

He served in different capacities in the ministry before his death.