Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga has been hospitalised in Miami, Florida, where he is being treated for an undisclosed ailment.

Sources close to the family of the former leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) told the Jamaica Observer last night that his family is ensuring that he gets the best possible care for his ailment. They refused to discuss the ailment or his condition.

“He is ailing, but he is certainly not dead,” one source responded last night. It is also understood that he took ill while travelling abroad. However, the sources have refused to name the hospital to which he is admitted to avoid an anticipated deluge of calls from concerned Jamaicans.

Last night his wife Carla issued a statement. “We would like to thank everyone for their love and prayers,” she said, adding that her husband was receiving excellent medical care.

Seaga, who will turn 89 on May 28, was Jamaica’s fifth prime minister, from 1980 to 1989, and the leader of the ruling JLP from 1974 to 2005 when he retired from active politics.

Since his retirement he has been an honorary distinguished fellow at the professorial level at The University of the West Indies, and also serves as chancellor of the University of Technology, Jamaica.