The city of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital was thrown into mourning yesterday as news of the death of the mother of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, Mrs. Iwari-Oba filtered in.
The mother of Mrs. Jonathan, who is from Okrika town was said to have been involved in a ghastly motor accident along Elele Road in Rivers State on her way to Bayelsa State.
Unconfirmed reports say that her corpse was taken to Kpaiyama Mortuary by a team of policemen and a member representing Ogu Bolo State Constituency, Mr. Evans Bipi, one of the main actors in the crisis that has engulfed the Rivers State House of Assembly who is a relative to the deceased.
Though the police and the Federal Road Safety Commission in the state could not confirm the incident, an aide to Bipi, Mr. Fred Itobo said the First Lady’s mother died in a road accident, which occurred at about 4pm on her way to Bayelsa State.
“Yes! She was involved in an accident and she died. Her body has been taken to a mortuary. Bipi was among those who took her body to the mortuary,” Itobo said.
When contacted, the State Director of FRSC, Dr. Kayode Olagunju, declined comment on the matter, saying, “I cannot say anything on this matter now until I get full details.”
Though effort to get reactions from the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs. Angela Agabe, proved futile, she had already told a journalist on the telephone that she had not been briefed on such crash.
Sources in the know say it was a result of th bad federal road she was plying that led to the disaster. The road is said to have been undergoing dualization with no end in sight for over a decade.