Thousands of Lagos residents converged on the Idowu Taylor
Street, Victoria Island, on Saturday to receive Christmas gifts from the Bola
Tinubu Foundation, a non-profit organisation owned by a former Governor of
Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
The gifts comprised bags of rice, salt, vegetable oil,
T-shirts and cash.
The event was not without hitches as policemen and other
security agents tried to push back the large crowd that turned up from every
local government area in the state.
PUNCH Metro observed that the barricades were broken
as beneficiaries caused a stampede.
As the crowd became uncontrollable, policemen fired teargas
into the crowd but the crowd remained adamant and stood their ground.
A Special Adviser to the former Governor, Mr. Femi Oyatolu,
said over 2,000 bags of rice had been distributed as of 12pm on Saturday.
Oyatolu, however, argued that the exercise was not
politically-motivated as no one was made to show evidence of membership of any
political party.
He said, “We have distributed over 2,000 bags of rice of
12.5kg. We have also distributed vegetable oil, T-shirts, salts and cash for
the needy. It is not politically-motivated because we have been doing this for
the past five years.
“It is a Christmas outreach but we also do it during Salah
as well. It is just a way of giving back to society and putting smiles on
people’s faces. It is not stomach infrastructure because it cuts across all
political divides. It is not restricted to any group.
“Apart from giving out gift items, we also do free medicals
for people and also pay school fees of indigent students.”
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