Addressing newsmen in Benin, the state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, said the burning of markets in the state has “confirmed our strong suspicion that they are responsible or at least complicit in the Lagos Street fire of yesterday and similar fire incidents that have happened on the eve of campaigns in the past in our State.
“Recall that prior to the 2020 governorship election, Eki Osa, Santana and Oba markets were set on fire, at a time, the APC was aggressively looking for ways to blackmail Governor Godwin Obaseki and dent his high popularity ratings weeks before the election. It would interest you to know that since the last governorship election in Edo State, there hasn’t been any market fire.
“Burning down markets is not a way to resurrect a dead political party that has manufactured unprecedented levels of poverty for Nigerians.” BUT the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress , yesterday, accused Obaseki and his PDP government of failure to find lasting solution to regular fire incidents at markets in Benin, particularly at the end of the year.