The Edo State Coordinator of the City Boy Movement, Dr Paddy Iyamu, on Monday dismissed claims that there was low turnout at the empowerment programme organised by the body on Friday.
Speaking at the commencement of distribution of empowerment items in Benin City, Iyamu explained that only 6,000 beneficiaries were invited to the event, making it impossible for them to occupy the 14,000-capacity stadium, adding that insinuations of political rejection were misleading and unfounded.
He said the decision to allow only 6000 beneficiaries into the stadium was to avoid a stampede as experienced in Owerri, Imo State.
He further noted that the empowerment initiative covered beneficiaries across the South-South region, with about 2,000 drawn from the 18 local government areas of Edo State, while participants from Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa states had already received their items.
“The sharing of items today (Monday) is the implementation of what happened last Saturday at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. We had 6,000 beneficiaries gathered, and because we didn’t want any stampede, we decided to decentralise it all through till Friday, until everybody gets their items.
“There are some speculations that the stadium was not filled to capacity because Edo people rejected the APC; that is a big lie. The stadium is a 14,000-seat capacity edifice, and the beneficiaries were 6,000, and there is no way 6,000 people will fill a 14,000 seating capacity.
“We did that because we didn’t want a repeat of what happened in Owerri. It is better we have a decent empowerment programme than having a programme that will be stampeded and the purpose defeated,” he said.
