By JIMITOTA ONOYUME

PORT HARCOURT — OKRIKA, home town of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, is agog ahead of the funeral of her mother, Madam Charity  Oba, which begins today. Despite the heavy security presence in the community, residents are in joyous mood.

Sources claimed that cows and bags of rice were distributed to several families in the town as part of efforts to decongest the venue of the funeral programme tomorrow.

“They gave many families cows and bags of rice to cook and eat at their residences, so that they would not come to the venue of the burial because the crowd being expected would be too large,” a community source said.

Another native also hinted that some amounts of money were also given to various families to buy drinks and other condiments to go with the rice and cow.