A member of the National Assembly representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency in Ondo State, Jimi Odimayo, has been accused by his constituents of distributing expired bags of rice during the festive season. 

In a viral video obtained by Peoples Gazette, the constituents displayed the grains of rice from the bag branded in Mr Odimayo’s picture, describing it as dangerous for human consumption. 

The footage showed the constituents, mostly elderly women and men, complaining of hazard consuming the alleged decayed rice. 

The Gazette on Wednesday gathered that the grains were distributed by Mr Odimayo, a few days before Christmas. 

Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the lawmaker promised his constituents “gifts items” including “cash” to celebrate the festive period. 

However, in the video – a woman, who is a member of the constituents was seen rejecting the rice doled out by Mr Odimayo, saying it was “poison.”

“This is a surprise to me because I have never seen someone give out this kind of rice as a politician. We are not hungry, we feed on our own, nobody should come and give us poison to eat. If you eat this one..(sic).. no hospital will heal you..” she complained in a local language. 

Another local who appeared in the video clip lamented that the rice was bad and would be  hazardous for human consumption. He displayed the grains, saying it was full of stones. 

“The stones in it are even more than rice. We couldn’t eat the one we cooked yesterday. Take a look at the cooked one and the uncooked both are injurious for consumption. You can imagine someone who wants to be governor dares to share this kind of rice to people. Nobody, including young and old, can eat it. It is not good at all. I have never seen this kind of rice before. Rice that has about two to three colours. Can’t you see how it looks? This is serious.”

The Gazette made several efforts to contact Mr Odimayo on Wednesday for his reaction but his lines were not connecting. 

A text message sent to him had yet to be delivered as of press time. 

But one of his aides, Victor Adedeji, denied that his principal distributed expired bags of rice to the constituents. 

He explained that the rice distributed to the constituents was part of Mr Odimayo’s share of the “brown rice” approved by the Federal Government to give out to the people. 

The aide, however, described the allegations as malicious and targeted at destroying Mr Odimayo’s image ahead of the forthcoming governorship election in the state. 

“Despite the claims made in the video suggesting the rice was full of stones and unfit for consumption, the rice provided was brown rice approved by the Federal Government and it is of acceptable quality and suitable for consumption,” he said.