Date Published: 01/09/10

8 th January 2010.

Press Release.

Lagos AC Derides Fabricated Opinion Poll on Anambra Governorship Election.

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress gas urged candidates in the up-coming Anambra governorship election to play to the rules and allow the people of Anambra State to be the ultimate decider of who governs the state from March 2010. The party says its position is informed by the recent attempt to advertise a so-called opinion poll on the Anambra governorship when it was obvious that it was a hatchet job to project one the candidates in the election.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, the party says that it is very familiar with such antics the fabricated opinion poll wants to advance and said such was also the case in the process leading to the farcical April 2007 polls. It says that the widespread rejection of the so-called by the candidates, the parties and the people of Anambra State shows the futility of adopting underhand practices to gain electoral advantage as was the case in 2007.

“From the general criticisms following the so-called opinion and the desperate facilitation of its publication in the newspapers by the agents of one of the candidates for the election, it has become evident to the fabricators of this phantom polls that there is only way to win the election in Anambra and that is the people’s votes. We are all witnesses to the adoption of the same tactics of sponsoring fake opinion polls by the PDP in the process leading to the mangled 2007 polls. We are on record as one of the earliest groups that warned Nigerians that such fake polls were precursors to the mindless manipulation that was being planned for the 2007 election. We were vindicated such that the 2007 remains a watershed in electoral fraud in not only the history of Nigeria but also the history of elections the world over. We were even more vindicated when the PDP attempted to justify the massive fraud by alluding to the forged opinion polls, which spoke of its dominance when it had wrecked the country through massive misgovernment.

“We want to quote from the final report of the European Union on that farcical election, as released yesterday,  to buttress our position about the phantom conduct of that historically flawed election. “The 2007 State and Federal elections fell far short of basic international and regional standards for democratic elections. They were marred by very poor organization, lack of essential transparency, widespread procedural irregularities, substantial evidence of fraud, widespread voter disenfranchisement at different stages of the process, lack of equal conditions for political parties and candidates and numerous incidents of violence.”

“Lagos AC is not surprised that the same tactics is being resurrected in Anambra and this is with a view to treating the forthcoming gubernatorial election to another massive fraud and turning around to justify such scam with the present fabricated polls. We believe such underhand practices should be discouraged while we urge the candidates to face the people with their manifestos and programmes instead of seeking to manipulate their ways to power. We want to let them know that given the history of how Anambra State came to have its electoral time-table altered, it would be difficult for any candidate to think he will manipulate his way to power again in Anambra and be allowed to enjoy another stolen mandate.

“We are not surprised to note that the fake polls has been traced to agents of one of the candidates and even as the polling procedures, respondents and benchmarks remain private to the sponsors of the poll, we are not surprised that it favoured a particular candidate, we urge the people of Anambra to ignore that so-called poll and treat it as the hatchet and desperate efforts of one of the candidates. We call for a level playing ground and call on all Anambra people to continue to ignore the so-called opinion poll as nothing more than the desperate effort of the PDP to justify the kind of fraud it is planning to unleash in Anambra during the governorship polls.”

Joe Igbokwe

Publicity Secretary,

Lagos AC.