Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Lagos State governorship election, Jimi Agbaje, has frowned at the distribution of bags of rice to civil servants by his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Sanwo-Olu had on Thursday distributed bags of rice to civil servants after a meeting with them at the state secretariat in Ikeja.
But Agbaje said it was wrong because the bags of rice had logo of the APC, adding that the distribution violated civil service decorum and neutrality.
He spoke through his Director of Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina, on Friday.
“We find the invitation and the rice gift appalling, opportunistic and illegal,” a statement ordered by Agbaje read.
“In a political contest of the nature in which Sanwo-Olu and the rest of us are involved, he has been offered an undue advantage. An uneven playing field has been created. And this is condemnable and contemptible.
“The gesture goes against Nigeria’s bureaucratic statutes that forbid civil servants romancing politics. For crying out loud, there are still regulations preventing civil servants from involving in politics.
”That invitation and the rice gifts is a violation of those extant rules.”
Agbaje and Sanwo-Olu are the front runners in the race for the highest office in Nigeria’s commercial centre, Lagos.
And the PDP candidate believes what happened on Thursday was shameful.
He added: “It is a shame to see civil servants struggling and hurting themselves just to get a small bag of Sanwo-Olu rice.
“But it is even more shameful to subject the crop of Nigeria’s middle-class to such an indignity.”