The mother of Nigeria’s First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has been reported dead.

A report this morning in the large-circulating Lagos newspaper, The Punch said Madam Iwari-Oba died yesterday evening in an accident.

“The mother of Mrs. Jonathan was said to have been involved in a ghastly motor accident along Elele Road in Rivers State,” the paper said.

“It was gathered that the woman, who is from Okrika Local Government Area, was on her way to Bayelsa State when the accident happened,” it added.

According to Punch: “Unconfirmed report indicated that her corpse was taken to Kpaiyama Mortuary by a team of policemen and a member representing Ogu Bolo State Constituency, Mr. Evans Bipi, 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 said the First Lady’s mother died in a road accident, which occurred at about 4pm.”

“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,” Bipi’s aide, Mr. Fred Itobo, told Punch.

There has been no official confirmation of the incident and Rivers State Director of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Dr. Kayode Olagunju, declined comment on the matter, saying, “I cannot say anything on this matter now until I get full details.”

News Express reports that this would be the second death affecting the First Family in eight months – President Goodluck Jonathan having lost his younger his half-brother, Chief Meni Jonathan, on November 20 last year. Meni, a titled chief and head of the council of chiefs in President Jonathan’s hometown Otueke, in Bayelsa State, reportedly battled an undisclosed illness and had to be flown to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, where he died at the age of 45 on the very day President Jonathan was marking his 55th birthday.

Madam Iwari-Oba’s age could not be ascertained but she must have been in her ’70s considering that Dame Jonathan is 55. The First Lady’s mother is believed to have been on her way to her in-laws’ place in Bayelsa State when the accident happened.

•Photo: Dame Jonathan.

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