Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Joy Ogwu, is dead.

Aged 79, information regarding the passing of Ogwu, according to a top diplomat who spoke with Daily Sun, was relayed from New York, United States.

Ogwu, who was also a former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations and erstwhile Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), was said to have died of a cancer-related illness.

Reacting to her passing, a former Nigerian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Sarki, said: “Today, we received the sad news of the passing away of the Permanent Representative (former), Professor Joy Ogwu.

“It is very sad. She was a very fine woman; she represented Nigeria to the best of her ability under very difficult circumstances,” Sarki said.

Sarki, who was deputy permanent representative during the tenure of Ogwu at the United Nations, further said Ogwu was a very decent human being. (Daily Sun, but headline rejigged)