A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Fabiyi Oladimeji has dismissed a poll giving Peter Obi the lead in next year’s presidential election, maintaining that such exercise has little impact on the outcome of elections.
In the fresh poll released in December by the Anap Foundation President Atedo Peterside, Obi has 23 percent, Tinubu scored 13, Atiku got 10 and Kwankwaso polled two percent
Reacting, Fabiyi said “We are not making any assumptions. This is what we are saying: polls are not real determinants of elections. It is how many people you are able to convince and reach out to at the grassroots, not polls,” Fabiyi said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily Thursday, hours after a poll commissioned by the Anap Foundation gave the Labour Party presidential candidate the leverage in next year’s exercise.
While such polls don’t affect election outcomes, the Director, Support Group & Events Technical Committee, Atiku For President 2023, believes they have their roles.
“It will only tell you where to work and focus more. There are credible polls and there are polls that are not credible,” he added.
“We know those credible ones when we see them and when we see them, they spur us more to go to work and do the needful. So, we appreciate them when they come. That’s what polls help you to do, they do not tell you the outcome of the elections.”
He also questioned the sample size used in the poll and argued that the number of people sampled is inadequate.
In the poll, which came four months after a similar one by the Foundation gave Obi the lead, the former Anambra State governor is ahead of Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)’s Rabiu Kwankwaso.
