Nigeria’s season of death of prominent citizens has claimed yet another victim. He is Ambassador J. T. Kolo, a one-time Nigerian ambassador to Italy. Ambassador Kolo died yesterday morning in Minna, the Niger State capital, aged 74.

“Ambassador Kolo slipped yesterday morning and was found dead hours later by a domestic staff inside his Minna home,” reports the Abuja-based Leadership newspaper. It described the departed diplomat as “a community leader and well-respected elder statesman.”

A one-time Nigerian High Commissioner to Britain during the Ibrahim Babangida regime, Kolo was at various times Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, and Head of Service during the Second Republic administration of Governor Awwal Ibrahim in Niger State.

Bemoaning his death, Niger State governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu described it as a great loss to the nation, adding that he would be missed for his wisdom and love for Nigeria.

News Express reports that death has lately claimed several prominent Nigerian former office holders, among them former Oyo State Governor Lam Adesina and Senator Olusola Saraki, the strongman of Kwara State politics.

•Photo: Late Ambassador Kolo.