Barrister Kenneth Imansuangbon (aka Riceman) is a man whose image looms larger than life on account of his yearly distribution of rice to the people of Edo State which he does around the Christmas season.
The acclaimed Riceman, a multibillionaire in his own right, is the Proprietor of Pacesetters Academy with six branches which are situated in Abuja. His philantrophic gestures in the early days extended to gifting school children expensive laptops in his desire that the kids are in tune with modern educational gadgets to ease their learning process.
He has been on this for seventeen years running and this has fetched him the moniker, Riceman. No matter his genuine intention to help in reducing the level of hunger in his home state, Edo, a group of people will not stop attributing his gesture as a fore runner to his political dream of governing the state in years to come.
Just recently, he was, as it is usual with him, on the trip of doing his rice sharing around the streets of the three senatorial districts of the acclaimed heartbeat state.
Starting off from his homestead, Ewohinmi, in Esan South East Local Government Area and Agenebode, in Etsako East Local Government Area wherever he shared the rice a large crowd of eager and expectant people gather around his rice sharing team to benefit from the largesse.
In all these outings he shared the staple to virtually all segment of the society irrespective of religious leaning, ethnic extraction etc.
As prayers was poured on him so also is the street slang “the next governor of Edo State” echoed without any sign of deceit or patronage.
By the time the rice sharing team got to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in Uhogua, a community situated in Ovia North East Local Government Area the acclaim had taken on a bigger picture with the inmates made up mostly of widows, orphans, indigent people and the likes vowing that they would henceforth take up the project of praying for him daily so that he can actualise his dream in 2024 which is perceived to be the ripe time for a candidate of Esan extraction to become governor of the state after over forty years and considering that Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor’s tenure between 2007 and 2008 is not recognised by law as he lost the position via court process to Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole of Edo North extraction.
At the University of Benin Teaching Hospital(UBTH) in Ugbowo his arrival culminated in jubilation from the sizeable crowd comprising the hospital’s management staff, workers and patients. A Promise Keeper that he is he gave a cheque of three million Naira to the hospital’s Chief Medical Director (CMD), Darlington Obaseki to keep to his vow to always support the facility with a million Naira yearly.
Dispelling the insinuation that his philantrophic gesture has political undertone at the IDPs rice sharing Barrister Imansuangbon appealed to people of means to come to the rescue of the inmates as they’re going through neglect which is causing them hardship.
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