PDP supporters dole out sachets of rice in Lagos

Residents of Ikeja, Lagos State were agog on Monday, when political supporters of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on a long train, started distributing sachets of rice, books, spaghetti and other freebies.

This however was a gimmick to get people to collect and keep PDP posters, which came with the packaged freebies.

The movement of the train was however almost truncated when suspected supporters of All Progressives Congress (APC), attacked the train.

The campaign train was intended to cover 10 wards, under the Ikeja Federal Constituency, with the aspirant, Honourable Kunle Okunola in tow.

It was however terminated -at Onigbongbo, ‘C ward’ by the APC supporters. They swooped on the train with broken bottles, knives and sticks. Some of the cars which were on convoy with the train were badly damaged.
Hon. Okunola said: “Since I embarked on this campaign rally two weeks now, I had not recorded any form of violence. I’m going to devise other strategies. I don’t want my success to be link with blood shedding or death. In all my political career, my successes had never been associated with violence. I will complete the remaining two wards through house-to-house campaign.”

Speaking directly to the perceived trouble makers, he said: “Your mates are building houses and driving cars, while your life is to foment trouble and cause violence. You think that was how people achieved success? You smoke Indian hemp to destroy your career.”
PDP youth leader of Ikeja Constituency, Alhaji Aminu Suleiman said:  “Others escaped but Sunkanmi had to follow us down here after interrogation. He owned up. He is a staunch member of APC party.  What they did on Monday was pre-planned arrangement. Sunkanmi said that they heard of the campaign coming up on Monday. We have been on this campaign rally for the past two weeks without any violence. We had done seven peaceful rallies without violence. This is the eight and APC thugs attacked us. This is why the Honourable said he could not continue with the funfair and does not want his success to be attached to death. He wants to win convincingly.”

He noted that before embarking on the campaign, they had applied to Area F Police Command and Rapid Response Squad (RRS) Alausa, to assist them with armed policemen

When asked on what motivated the sharing of the freebies, Suleiman said: “It’s part of the political gimmicks at the federal level. The opposition party did it too. Governor of Ekiti, Ayo Fayose did it and said it was stomach infrastructure. Bola Ahmed condemned it, but shortly after Christmas, the same Tinubu shared the same items at Bourdillion, Ikoyi. Hunger is the major problem this country is facing. The sharing of gifts is targeting at the less privileged to vote, so that if the person is elected into an office, he’ll come back to show appreciation.”