Verbal exchanges between the Edo State chapters of the two major political parties in the governorship race, continued yesterday with the APC carpeting the PDP for claiming that it sponsored public opinion poll on the likely outcome of the forthcoming election.
State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chris Nehikhare, while addressing journalists in Benin City on Sunday, claimed that the APC commissioned the conduct of an opinion poll which result indicated that his party, the PDP, would win the election in at least 16 out of the 18 local government areas of the state.
But yesterday, the APC debunked the PDP’s claim, saying that two Online platforms carried out the polls on their platforms which results confirmed APC winning the PDP in the election.
Addressing journalists on the matter, the Chairman, APC Media Campaign Council, John Mayaki, said the party was too busy with its campaign to sponsor the conduct of opinion polls.
“To begin with, it is important to state that the irresponsible and false claim bandied by the PDP that the APC sponsored and lost an online poll is dismissed by two factual points: the first being that as a party, we, the All Progressives Congress, are too busy doing the groundwork of grassroots mobilization of voters across the 192 wards of the state and building on the existing support and love the people already have for the party, with the aim of attracting even more supporters on the strength of our manifesto – something the PDP lacks – to be involved in the petty tricks of staging or sponsoring such poll as alleged by this busy-body party.
“To be clear, we acknowledge the importance of weighing public opinion on issues, but we also know that such exercise must be carried out in a transparent process using credible mediums that are protected from the manipulation of desperate parties like the PDP who are on the frantic chase of any form of good news to breathe some life into their deflated and dull campaign. And this brings us to the second point.
“If the PDP wants to be taken seriously, then they should provide undebatable evidence of our sponsorship of this said opinion poll. They should not only publish the contractors, or the organisation contracted, but must also disclose the full details and result of the said poll conducted by APC and won by the PDP.
“But we know that the PDP will come up empty because these things do not exist and the allegation is only the product of their crooked minds.
On the other hand, from our own independent investigations, what has emerged is the fact that some media platforms conducted polls on their respective digital platforms where reality was once again reflected as our candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, emerged with the lead votes, and our party was vindicated by the people as non-violent in its approach.