Known thugs on the payroll of the former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and a Benin billionaire, Capt. Hosa Okunbo, are on rampage in Benin City and other towns, vandalising the campaign billboards of Governor Godwin Obaseki, the PDP candidate in the September 19, gubernatorial election.

According to the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, “We have it on good authority that the vandals are known thugs who are on the payroll of Adams Oshiomhole and a Benin billionaire, Capt. Hosa Okunbo.”

Osagie described the action of the opposition APC as “defeatist and proof of the alarm we raised earlier that the APC is set to cause mayhem in the state to derail the electoral process.”

He added: “The candidate of the APC in the gubernatorial election, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is defective and unpopular among Edo people. He certainly cannot defeat Obaseki at the poll. His sponsors such as Adams Oshiomhole and Capt. Hosa Okunbo have just come to this realisation after a few days of their campaigns.

“So in frustration, they have resorted to lawless acts such as vandalising billboards and instilling fear in the minds of Edo voters. But unknown to them, Obaseki’s popularity is first in the hearts of Edo people and refreshed and reinforced daily by the governor’s dividends of democracy across the state.”

The Governor’s aide maintained that “the police and other security agencies have been duly informed of the illegal actions of these thugs,” and assured that “no amount of sponsored attacks by the APC can prevail over the will of millions of Edo people.”