All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed an election poll by Nextier which has placed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, ahead of the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu.

APC’s reaction is contained in a statement signed by the Director, Media and Publicity APC Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, yesterday.

Onanuga, in the statement, started by saying: “We are constrained as a matter of public record to react to another farcical Presidential Election Poll result released by an organisation that calls itself Nextier, a public policy advisory firm that overnight turned itself into a Nigerian Gallup Poll or Ipsos.

“We are reacting for the sake of unsuspecting Nigerians so that they are not misled by the Patrick Okigbo-led organisation, which appears to have the agenda to create confusion and chaos in our country.

“For a start, Nigerians should know that promoters of Nextier are members of Mr Peter Obi’s Presidential Campaign Council and active campaigners for the Labour Party presidential candidate.”

He said any poll conducted by such a partisan organisation should be taken with a pinch of salt.

He also faulted the sample size of the poll and methodology employed, saying they would stand any integrity test.

The statement further stated: “It is quite ludicrous that Nextier Poll that projects a clean sweep of the South East Region at over 90 per cent of registered voters also puts Peter Obi ahead of the APC Presidential candidate, in the six SouthWest states, including Lagos.

“Assuming without absolutely conceding that Obi will enjoy home advantage in his part of the country, we then wonder why the pollsters at Nextier, if they have any modicum of respect for the intellect of Nigerians, thought the factors that will propel landslide victory for Obi in South East will not work for the APC candidate in his own South West base.

“The partisan pollsters gave Bayelsa 62.9 per cent to Labour Party and also claimed LP would win Delta 65.9 per cent, home of PDP vice presidential candidate.”

He described the poll as wishful thinking without any basis in fact and reality, saying it is important to alert Nigerians and the international community that Nextier is allegedly working for the Labour Party and their poll results are all cooked up, far away from reality.

Guardian Nigeria