ACN, CPC Repudiate Thisday: Reveals How they Aid PDP to Rig Elections
Two leading opposition parties in Nigeria, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has condemned ThisdayNewspapers opinion poll which affirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan will receive 60% of the total votes during April polls.
Mr. Joe Igbokwe, publicity Secretary of ACN labeled ThisdayNewspapers 'the number one enemy of Nigeria'.
In his words; 'This is the fraudulent business Thisday newspaper has been known for since 2003 and it is all about politics of the stomach'.
'This paper did it for a fee in 2003. They did it again in 2007 for N3 Billion Naira and in 2011, these hungry guys are repeating it again. This is impunity taken to a frightening dimension'.
'For a huge fee that runs into several billions of Naira this shameless newspaper is preparing the ground for PDP to rig the 2011 election as it did in 2003 and 2007'.
'This is silly, petty, meaningless and unacceptable'
Mr. Igbokwe further stated:
'That Nigeria's democracy has been fumbling and wobbling since 1999 is simply because there are people and institutions that have been working in tandem with PDP to frustrate all our efforts'.
'Thisday newspaper is one of such institutions and time has come for us to address this dangerous trend. For 12 years and with all the money this country has earned more than what we had earned from 1960 to 1999, the party could not just get it'.
Mr. Igbokwe opined that anybody can take Thisday newspaper and their so-called opinion Polls of Monday March 21st 2011 serious, but we in ACN cannot, especially now that Charge d' Affairs of US Embassy in Nigeria, Lisa Piascik labeled PDP as a no political party.
In the same vein, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin, National Publicity Secretary of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) , said ' the current publications which awarded 62% of the votes to be cast by long suffering Nigerians to Jonathan and PDP who are their 'Tormentors-in-Chief', looks like a last ditch effort by the PDP and its candidate to justify the massive electoral fraud they have planned to unleash on Nigerians'.
Hear him:
'The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) wishes to appeal to its teeming members and supporters in all parts of Nigeria and beyond to discountenance the sponsored publication which appeared on the front page of Monday, March 21, 2011 edition of ThisDay Newspapers captioned Jonathan Leads with 60%, PDP May Lose Four States'.
'A cursory look at the said publication shows that it is in line with the hatchet job which the publishers of the newspapers (ThisDay), had been doing for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in every election year, since the return to democratic rule in 1999'.
'Our research shows that these fake 'opinion polls' by the publishers of ThisDay Newspapers form a major tactic employed by the PDP, INEC, the Police and the SSS and other security agencies to rig elections in the country'.
'This has happened in 1999, 2003 and 2007. In some cases in the past, PDP had tendered such fake
'opinion polls' publications in courts as evidence to back up its fraudulent electoral victories and stolen mandates of the Nigerian masses'.
'As the 2011 general elections draws nearer, the PDP through its presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has resorted to playing the trick of hiring the publishers of ThisDay Newspapers to manufacture the usual document for election rigging'.
'The current publications which awarded 62% of the votes to be cast by long suffering Nigerians to Jonathan and PDP who are their 'Tormentors-in-Chief', looks like a last ditch effort by the PDP and its candidate to justify the massive electoral fraud they have planned to unleash on Nigerians'.
'But as a responsible political party that is poised to rescue hapless Nigerians from the vice-grip of the PDP in the last twelve years, we wish to warn publishers of ThisDay Newspapers and their paymasters, to allow peace to reign in Nigeria, by desisting from having a hand in whatever will truncate the electoral will of the Nigerian people this year.
' We stand by the firm insistence of Nigerians as well as the International Community that VOTES MUST COUNT in Nigeria this time around'.
'No amount of panic measures including the publications of officially sponsored fraudulent 'opinion polls' will intimidate Nigerians to abandon their resolve this time around to insist that the right thing be done in the country during these crucial general elections'.
'On our part, we shall continue to bring to the fore the shenanigans of the ruling PDP, in its desperate bid to hoodwink our unsuspecting people'.
'Eternal vigilance remains the price for our freedom'!
'Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria'.
Asked about the veracity of the opinion polls and if ThisdayNewspapers was paid by PDP to side with them. Simon Kolawole, Editor of the daily newspaper and Divisional Director (Editorial) of THISDAY, said, the polls was conducted by IPSOS, on behalf of Thisday.
THISDAY/IPSOS Nigeria Poll: How They Awarded 60% of April Polls to Jonathan
According to Christine Laurenssen of IPSOS, Ipsos initially conducted a face-to-face survey of 11,100 Nigerians. Interviews were conducted in-home by trained interviewers between 25 January 2011 and 8 February 2011. The first poll, covered in this press release, covered a range social and political issues.
The survey comprised only registered voters and those planning to register to vote in time for the elections in April 2011. Respondents were therefore asked at the beginning of the interview if they have registered to vote in the elections in April 2011. Over nine in ten (92%) indicated they were registered to vote, and the remaining 8% indicated that they were still planning to register to vote and so their opinions were included in the results.
Ipsos undertook a stratified, multi-stage probability sampling technique in order to neutralise potential forms of bias that might affect the accuracy and reliability of the data collected. This technique applies random selection methods at every stage of sampling and ensures that all Nigerian adults of voting age (males, females, urban and rural dwellers, and all social classes) are given a known chance of being selected to partake in the polling.
The survey covered all of Nigeria. Within each region the selection of sampling locations - a mix of urban, semi-urban and rural - was generated randomly in order for all locations to be given an equal and known chance of being selected.At least five, but no more than ten, interviews were conducted in each primary sampling unit (PSU) to facilitate spread of interviews and adequate representativeness.
In total 1,730 sampling points were randomly selected across the federation. This was done to ensure the most comprehensive coverage of the population possible.
Interviews were conducted face-to-face in all 36 states of the federation and the FCT (Abuja). This approach ensured that people who do not own or have access to a telephone were given an equal chance of being selected. Regionally and locally based interviewers were used to carry out the interviews (meaning these interviewers will be more familiar with the local region and languages), and interviews were always conducted in the respondent's preferred language (English, Pidgin, Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa) to ensure congruence with language and ethnicity of the respondents.
All interviewers went through a two-day training program to ensure consistent administration of the questionnaire across the sample, a practice which is in line with internationally recognized research standards.
The data were weighted using 2006 census figures to ensure a match between the survey sample and the Nigerian population.
Fieldwork for the second poll was conducted between 25 February to 16 March 2011 via a mix of face-to-face in-home and telephonic re-contact interviews of the initial sample of 11,100 interviewees. Where respondents could not be re-contacted they were substituted by a face to face interview with a respondent who was matched in terms of age, gender, SEC, education level and area.
All sample surveys are subject to statistical error, depending on sample size, interviewing methodology and response rate. The margin of error for the national figures in this poll is 0.93. This means that in 95 out of every 100 cases, the findings will fall within +/- 0.93% range when looking at the national results. The margin of error for state level figures is +/- 6.3%.
Ipsos fully adheres to the ICC-ESOMAR International Code of Marketing and Social Research.she affirmed.