Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, has rebuffed allegations by the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing the Edo State government of vandalizing campaign billboards of APC candidates in the coming Edo State election.
Speaking in a statement, Osagie said the allegations were ludicrous and unfounded, and also a "cheap blackmail to score lame political points," by the APC.
“Ize-Iyamu is a politician that assumes relevance during every election cycle. This is what he does for a living and has no other job. It is not surprising to see these statements from him and his team. He should not be taken seriously, and his statements should be disregarded.
“He would go back to his cocoon after he has been defeated at the September 19, 2020 election and would most likely resurface after four years to repeat this cycle. So, we are used to his childish charades.”
Speaking in a statement at a press conference in Benin City, the Edo State capital, National Vice Chairman of the publicity committee of the campaign council, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, said the action was “unfortunate” and “criminal.”
He said, “We are convinced that this act of intolerance, carried out with impunity, foreshadows what the Edo State government has in store for the Edo voters and our supporters in the September 19 election following the emergence of incontrovertible facts that Mr. Godwin Obaseki is on his way to an embarrassing defeat.
The campaign council also stated, “The Edo State Signage and Advertising Agency, purportedly led by the so-called Mr. Dave Giwa Amu, an avowed supporter of the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki, is an agency that is yet to receive the assent of the Edo State House of Assembly as the bill for its creation and operations is still being considered in the legislative chamber…
“This agency, as of today, is unknown to the laws of Edo State and is being weaponised by the state government, an interested party in the election, to give itself an illegal, unfair, unethical, fraudulent advantage as we approach the polls.
“This is an egregious and opprobrious escalation of other recorded acts of abuse of office and disregard for the law on the part of the Edo State government. It is a new low for a state government and a governor that has blurred and corrosively dimmed the lines on what is personal and official, reserves the interest of the state and that of the parochial interests of the man, who lead it.
“It is unfortunate that as the chief executive of the state, who is expected to commit to peace, rule of law and avoidance of rancour, Governor Godwin Obaseki has continued to heat up the polity with reckless and provocative comments, media blackmail and criminal actions of intolerance, including the mass destruction of opponent’s campaign materials.”
Obahiagbon stated that APC and its candidates remained confident that Edo people already knew where to place their thumbs on September 19 and would not be cowed by the “last kicks of a dying horse”.