Residents of Ikeja Federal Constituency converge on the Blue Roof hall at the Lagos Television on Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi on Monday, 7 October, 2024 to benefit from the free food programme of their representative in the House of Representatives, Honourable James Abiodun Faleke.
As early as 5am, residents have started to arrive the venue of the free food programme to take number so that they can be attended to early.
“I came here around 6am and I met many people here already. Eventually, I was able to enter the hall around 9am and I got my package. I can’t thank Honourable Faleke enough, he has been God-sent to us in Ikeja Federal Constituency,” Mrs Amarachi Chikwe who lives at Grammar School area of Ojodu told our correspondent.
Security men had a hectic time controlling the crowd but kudos must be given to the Faleke’s team for the way the event was organised.
Over 10,000 residents benefitted from the programme as each went home with 5kg of rice and semovita.
At a time when the crowd continues to grow and the attendants were getting overwhelmed, Faleke himself joined the attendants and assisted in distributing the items.
The only condition to benefit was presentation of voter’s card which showed that the beneficiary is a, registered voter.
“It does not matter where you come from, which political party you belong to or voted for or which religion you belong to, all you need to show is your voter’s card,” Barrister Wale Ajala, one of Faleke’s aides told our correspondent.
Indeed, our correspondent confirmed that there were beneficiaries from other parts of Lagos apart from Ikeja.
“You can see that there are beneficiaries from other parts of the state apart from Ikeja,” Faleke told journalists at the venue.
According to him, “I have to insist on voter’s cards because I want the programme to reach the real voters. Those who voted for us to get to the House of Representatives”.
He stated further that he did not discriminate on party, race, gender or status level. “All you need to show is your voter’s card to benefit,” he said.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Finance assured his constituents that he would continue to empower them.
“There are more empowerment programmes between now and December. We won’t stop in empowering our people,” he assured.
According to residents, Faleke has been a worthy representative of the constituency.
“This is not the first time he’s giving us free food items, he has done it this year. He has been distributing trycycles, mini buses, refrigerators and other vocational items. He has also been organising free training for residents and equipping them with necessary tools. He has really been doing his best,” a resident, Olaide Adekunle, told our correspondent.
Another resident, Fauziyyah Al-Amin urged other lawmakers both at the state and federal levels to emulate Faleke, noting that this will go a long way in reducing poverty in the state.
“We have 40 state lawmakers and 24 federal lawmakers, if they can emulate Faleke and improve on their empowerment programmes, a lot of people will be taken out of poverty,” she said.
