UK Coroner contradicts postmortem done in Nigeria on death of British-Nigerian man

The death of Walter Francisco Aghama, a 42-year-old British-Nigeria in a hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, has-been ruled as unascertained. This contradicts a postmortem by a Nigerian hospital attributing the cause of his death to be ‘acute hypertension.’

The inquest was ordered after the 42-year-old man died suddenly in a hotel in Lagos.

Walter Francisco Aghama, 42, is from Great Blakenham, in the United Kingdom. He had flown to Lagos in January this year to attend his father’s funeral.

His body was discovered in his room at the Apple Ville Suite hotel in Ikeja, Lagos, at around 2am on January 31.

The court heard that Mr Aghama had kept in contact with his family in the UK throughout his stay abroad.

However, on the day of his death, his family were unable to contact him. Later that day, Mr Aghama’s wife was informed that his body had been found by hotel staff.

The court heard that Mr Aghama was previously fit and well, and was not taking any form of prescription medication. He had last spoken with his wife at around 10.30pm on January 30, and had told her he was tired, but not feeling unwell.

The court heard that a postmortem carried out in Nigeria found that Mr Aghama had been suffering from acute hypertension and hypertensive heart disease.

A written inquest was completed by Suffolk’s senior coroner Nigel Parsley, and read before the court by assistant coroner Peter Taheri.

He explained that there was no evidence in the UK’s medical records that Mr Aghama had ever suffered from hypertension.

In light of this discrepancy, he said that it was not possible to record a cause of death.

He, therefore, recorded an open conclusion, and gave Mr Aghama’s cause of death as “unascertained”.