I didn’t share Jonathan’s rice as Xmas gift —Edo PDP gov aspirant

BENIN—A governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, in this year’s election in Edo State,
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has denied allegations that he
shared rice meant for the presidential campaign of former
President Goodluck Jonathan in the state as his Christmas
gift to Edo people.
In a statement in Benin, yesterday, he said, “For the records,
Dr. Jonathan or PDP never brought rice to distribute for the
presidential election in Edo State, so it is impossible to
comptemplate its being diverted.
“It was Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria, TAN, a
support group for the then President, that sent some 5kg
bags of rice which were given to the party leadership to
distribute and were never given to me as state coordinator.
“The rice I shared during the last Christmas was in 50kg,
25kg, 10kg and 2kg bags respectively. The 2kg bags which
had the inscription of PDP and operation feed Nigeria was
produced by a friend and his phone number is boldly written
on the bags. He gave me these bags free of charge to give
to as many people as possible as gift during Christmas.
“I stuck my stickers on the bags after bagging them to
enable the recipients know where the rice came from and I
thank God for all those who supported me to achieve this
gesture of love in a state that has been plundered by those
who promised to abolish poverty.
“I challenge those who persist in lies and character
assassination to call the phone number on the back of the
2kg bags and confirm the producer of these bags. Common
sense which is lacking in the life of political thieves could
have revealed that rice stored for over a year would be prey
to weevils and clearly not suitable for human consumption.”
He accused those he called political hirelings of attempting
to cast aspersions on the integrity of his person by falsely
accusing him of diverting rice meant for the presidential
campaign of Dr. Jonathan and distributing same as his own
Christmas gift to Edo people.
“This baseless allegation, which is absurd, was quickly
refuted by the leadership of PDP in Edo State as untrue.
That emphatic statement ought to have cleared the matter
but clueless detractors desperate to earn their pay stuck to
their mischief and insisted that their allegation must be
investigated,” he said.