THE lawmaker representing Ede North State Constituency in the Osun State House of Assembly, Mr. Niran Atidade, was attacked by social media users, as the pictures of packs of Semovita he distributed to his constituents went viral, on Monday.
Each bag of the food items had the message, “Go and get your PVC so you and I can vote Senator Nurudeen Adeleke as governor in 2022,” printed on it.
In a post, a Facebook user, Agunbiade Joshua, wrote, “politics of stomach infrastructure. Until Nigerians start rejecting this shameless approach, the political slavery continues. I weep for this country.”
However, a counter post by another Facebook user, Sulaimon Abayomi, read, “APC government brought economic hardship to this country. Even if anybody shares bread on behalf of Adeleke it is part of the reduction of hunger.”
The debate on the social networking platform took a political dimension as loyalists of the All Progressives Congress took on those of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Contributing to the debate, the state lead, Democracy Watch, Ayo Ologun, in a statement, titled ‘Stop Demeaning Osun Voters by Illegality,’ said, “One would expect that the House of Assembly member representing a generational shift as a young person will know what is right and what is acceptable at a time like this.
“At a time like this, inducing voters through the distribution of food items in exchange for voters’ registration is an attempt at swaying them to support and vote for a particular party in the coming election.”
In response, the lawmaker at the centre of the storm, Atidade said, “I distributed the food items on Sunday and over 400 people in my constituency benefited. I distribute food items to people on a monthly basis and I also add money for the windows.
“In this world, you use the language your people will understand best to communicate with them. Those attacking me are haters.”
