Former Delta Speaker dies in hospital toilet

 A former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr Young Igbrude, is dead.

It was gathered that the death occurred at St. Luke’s Hospital, Asaba, where the man took one of his sons for medical treatment.Aged 62, the late Igbrude was said to have personally driven his car to the hospital.

A source at the hospital said that while the deceased was waiting for the son to be attended to, he went to one of the public conveniences to ease himself.

“After treating the son, we started looking for the father and when we couldn’t find him around, we decided to check the public conveniences.“And to everyone’s shock, we found him lying inside one of the conveniences and a close observation showed that he fell down inside the place.”

The source hinted that Igbrude's death might have resulted from cardiac arrest.

No medical officer in the hospital was around to confirm cause of the death when NAN visited.

But Chief Gabriel Awodeha, former Chief Press Secretary to the late speaker, said the corpse had been deposited in the hospital’s morgue.At the residence of the Igbrudes on Ovuozourie Macaulay Street, Government Reservation Area, sympathisers were trooping to the premises at about 6 p.m.

His wife, Mimi and children were in a state of shock and could not speak to anyone even as top government officials and close friends of the family gathered around them.

Pointing to a Nissan Primera car, marked SLK 163 AA, parked in the compound, his gateman said: “This was the car oga drove when he was going out with the son at about 11 O’clock, this morning. Oga was not sick at all”.

Among sympathisers who visited the home of the deceased were Mrs Hanatu Ochei, the wife of the current Speaker of Delta House of Assembly; Mrs Betty Efekhoda,  the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development; as well as  the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Chief Nkem Okwuofu.

The late Igbrude, was an indigene of Owheologbo in Isoko North Local Government Area of the state.

He got elected  the Speaker of the House of  Assembly on June 3, 2003 but he  was impeached on May 25, 2006.