A survey conducted by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in Lagos State on the Bayelsa State December 5 election, has indicated that the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and former governor of the state, Chief Timipreye Sylva, will emerge winner of the election by wide margin.
However, the announcement of the poll conducted by ‘Election Frontline’, did not go down well with the umbrella campaign organization for the re-election of Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, who in statement stated they “received with rude shock, the so called poll survey conducted on the would-be voting pattern of voters in the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State.”
A statement by the Director of the Media and Publicity of the campaign organization, Jonathan Obuebite, stated the survey made available to newsmen through email in Yenagoa, by Election Frontline, stated the team was made up of APC card-carrying members led by one MacPepple Joshua.
The survey which seek to find out the level of awareness and preparedness of the people of Bayelsa State, particularly the eligible voters on the December 5 Governorship election, had indicated that out of the eight local government Areas, Chief Timipre Sylva, will win in six local government areas.
The survey named the local government areas as Southern Ijaw, Yenagoa, Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Nembe and Brass while incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson will manage to win in his own Local Government Area of Sagbama and Local Government Area of the former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
Among other things, the statement signed by the survey administrator, Joshua MacPepple, stated the poll also seeks “to examine the electoral suitability and value of the 20 governorship candidates through the campaign strategies adopted by their respective political parties and determine the most acceptable candidate who is likely to emerge as the next governor come February, 14 2016.”
“The study adopted survey as research design and sampling method was used to select sample of 1,000 residents as the population of the study across the eight local government areas. Questionnaire was used as research instrument. There are 15 items in the questionnaire.
"Out of the 1,000 copies of the questionnaire distributed in the 8 LGAs (Yenagoa, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Sagbama, Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Nembe and Brass), 952 copies were filled correctly and returned representing a good return rate of 95.2 per cent," the statement added.
The survey however shows that on the acceptability of the various political parties, 49.08% of the population of study indicated their preference for the PDP while 45.51% preferred APC while small population indicated their preference for the People’s Democratic Movement, PDM.
The survey stated that on the electoral value of the various candidates, 31.03 % of the population study promised to vote for the incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson of the PDP while 58.92 % of the respondents stated they will vote for former Governor Timipre Sylva of the APC.
In a swift reaction, Jonathan Obuebite, stated opinion poll was obviously sponsored by the APC leadership, saying it was unfortunate that the administrator of the so called opinion poll simply sat in Lagos and wrote its report which unfortunately alluded that the APC governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva would win the election.
“Ordinarily, this unfounded opinion poll should not merit a reaction from either the PDP or the Restoration Campaign Organization of Governor Seriake Dickson, but we have decided to succinctly react to the falsehood, propaganda and blackmail of the APC pollsters to set the record straight before Nigerians and the international community," he stated.