UK envoy slumps,dies at Lagos airport

The British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Peter Carter Leslie on Tuesday slumped and died from a possible heart attack on arrival at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The deceased who arrived Lagos on United Airlines Flight UA143 at 3.50 pm local time slumped in the avio-bridge while he was alighting from the aircraft. It was gathered that officials from British High Commission and the Port Health Services tried to resuscitate him with oxygen but the effort failed. “We have an incident here. The UK Deputy High Commissioner who just arrived this afternoon on a United Airlines flight just slumped as he was coming out of the aircraft and died. He is being evaluated at this moment,” an informed source said. Nobody knew the cause of the death or if he was sick on board the aircraft, but a worker with one of the aviation handling companies disclosed that he saw the gathering of officers from the high commission who kept mum and looked solemn, before he learnt about the tragic incident. People’s Daily learnt that as the deceased was leaving the aircraft, he started gasping for breath and needed oxygen which was brought to resuscitate him but failed to recover. Efforts to get the confirmation of the British High Commission in Lagos and Abuja, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, proved unsuccessful yesterday, as calls to the commission and the ministry were unanswered. However, a letter written by the Federal Ministry of Health Port Health Services, which was signed by Doctors E.E. Ukatu and Abdullai, and was made available to journalists, confirmed the incident.