‘Ondo SMS opinion poll result not true’

Ahead of the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State, a political group, Ondo Democracy Fighters (ODF), yesterday faulted a short messaging service (SMS) opinion poll recently conducted by Gallop Polls Nigeria Limited.
By the result released in Akure, the state capital, Gallop Polls said the ruling Labour Party (LP) candidate, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, polled 77 per cent of the votes.
Its Principal Consultant Anthony Chigbo said 14,500 voters from the state participated in the MTN SMS opinion poll.
According to him, Mimiko polled 11,164; the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Mr. Oluwwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) scored 1,420, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) standard bearer, Olusola Oke, polled 1,230 votes.
But ODF alleged that the Gallop Poll was sponsored by the state government to create the impression that the LP was the most popular party in the state.
A statement by its state Coordinator, Sowore Fabuluje, alleged that the opinion poll was stage-managed by the government.
The group said: “As part of efforts to ensure that the poll favoured their sponsors, the group only gave the chance to electorate who are MTN subscribers to participate in the poll. But we were aware that in the previous polls conducted in other states by an independent agency, all the telecommunications companies’ subscribers were allowed to participate.”

It noted that before the poll was conducted, the public was not properly enlightened, “except those who are always conversant with daily newspapers”.