TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of planning to organise a fake opinion poll for Muhammadu Buhari, its presidential candidate, ahead of the February 14 elections.

The ruling PDP said that the APC was plotting to manipulate public opinion in its favour by organising the “kangaroo” poll.

It urged the main opposition party to “focus on real campaign and try to win followers genuinely instead of applying cheap diversionary tactics”.

Speaking on Monday through its spokesman, Olisa Metuh, the PDP lampooned the APC, saying: “The so-called ‘change agenda’ should be based on issues and not on change of dressing and religious gathering.

“This election is not about political window-dressing and dramatising. What will count is record of performance and antecedents, on which President Jonathan stands taller than Buhari.

“It is therefore not surprising that the APC and its presidential candidate will resort to organising a kangaroo opinion rating in a failed attempt to cover up their inadequacies and manipulate public perception in their favour.”

It alleged that APC’s poll had been designed to make the Nigerian public believe that 75 per cent of the voting population was in support of Buhari.

“Our findings reveal that the APC leaders are already intensifying effort to compromise some section of the media so as to ensure that the poll packaged by its foreign consultants is widely publicised,” the PDP alleged.

“Part of the strategy is a disguised mobile phone balloting application being circulated by the APC, whereby a curious click elicits a thank-you message from them and automatically registers the unsuspecting phone user as having voted in support of Buhari.

“We are indeed shocked at the level the APC and its presidential candidate have sunk in their desperation for power. We hereby urge Nigerians, particularly the media, to be wary of this plot to deceive the public and truncate our democratic process.

“Our final advice to the APC is that they should focus on real campaign and stop playing to the gallery. Lies, no matter how much embellished can never take the place of truth and nothing built on falsehood stands.

“This election is not about fake figures and falsehood. It is about the choice of the citizens. Nigerians have since made up their minds to continue identifying with their performing president and no amount of propaganda and misrepresentation by the APC can change this.”