A young mother and her children in Benin City are facing what many have regarded as organized persecution resulting in the kidnap of their breadwinner and top notch of opposition political party in Edo State Hon Austine Okundaye.

Hon Austine was abducted 12 November 2025 in front of his wife Sandra Gift Okundaye and children by some armed men in police uniform but has not been seen after police authorities said they were not involved in any of such operations after several reports made by family members in that regard.

Sandra Gift Okundaye, a mother of two is turned between centripetal forces coalescing to turn her life into misery forcing her to go underground for her personal safety and those of her children.

Trouble family sources said started when her husband Austine Okundaye was illegally removed from a top local government position in Ovia North East soon after the All Progressives Congress assumed power in Edo in November 2024, his support for the candidate of the People Democratic Party {PDP) Asuen Ighodalo and formal governor of State Godwin Obaseki.

Besides being removed, Hon Austine and some other PDP members became object of sustained persecution, thus exposing them to frequent attacks by APC thugs who have declared key opposition PDP figures in Edo enemies of the Palace of the Oba of Benin due to Ex-Governor Obaseki’s dispute over control of the returned stolen artefacts.
The armed APC thugs led by notorious street urchins in the state have reportedly sustained their threats and attacks on the Hon Austine’s family forcing them to run out of town for safety.

The latest of such attacks sources claim happened at the home of Hon Austine’s mother-inlaw Mrs Florence Egbebalor Efosa, where the attackers had thought Sandra and her children were hiding, killing the poor old woman in the process.

The source explained that Sandra had actually ran to hide in the remote location as a way to avoid the ominous attack which pervaded her husband’s house but her mother now deceased wouldn’t let her stay, preferring her relocating to a fellow church member’s home within the vicinity.
“That was Sandra’s saving grace the source concluded.
Confirming the incident, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Edo State Command, said the security agencies have commenced investigations into the killing and missing of Hon Austine. He assured the families that efforts are ongoing to apprehend those responsible and rescue Austin.