The United States Agency for International
Development has disowned a poll which the Peoples
Democratic Party [PDP] says puts its candidate, Iyiola
Omisore, ahead of his All Progressives Congress [APC]
counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola.
The source of the said poll is unclear but the PDP has
in the last few days been promoting it as evidence of
Mr. Omisore’s imminent victory in the August 9
governorship election in the state.
In the purported survey, Mr. Omisore led the pack of
other contestants with 58 percent tally, followed by Mr.
Aregbesola, the incumbent governor, with 30 percent.
On Friday, Mr. Omisore’s campaign organisation
issued a statement saying the purported USAID poll
was by far more credible than the one done by Lagos-
based research firm, RMS-TNS, which puts Mr.
Aregbesola far ahead of Mr. Omisore.
“The public should note that USAID, an international
organisation operating all over the world with
unrivalled technical competence and impartial
perspective on Osun political landscape, had put
Senator Omisore ahead with 58 percent to Aregbesola’s
30 percent,” Diran Odeyemi, the campaign’s director
of media and strategy, said in the statement.
But USAID has now said it did not conduct any poll on
the Osun election.
“None of USAID Peace and Democratic Governance
Implementing Partners ( P/DG IPs) support or plan to
support any election related opinion polls in Osun,”
the USAID Democracy and Governance Team said.
The Acting Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Consulate
in Lagos, Rhonda Watson, also said, “NO USAID poll
was taken in Osun.”
Watson and the USAID Democracy and Governance
Team were responding to an enquiry by two officials of
Mr. Aregbesola’s campaign organisation – Olusola
Adeyeye and Semiu Okanlawon – who wrote to ask
whether USAID conducted any poll on the Osun
election.
Mr. Adeyeye, a professor, had on July 30 written to the
U.S. Consulate as follows:
“My attention has been brought to the outlandish
findings of an opinion poll purportedly conducted by
the USAID.
“In my capacity as the Chairman and Director General
of the Aregbesola campaign, I am seeking to verify
whether or not the USAID conducted a poll on the
pending gubernatorial election in the State of Osun.
“If such a poll was conducted, it is only fair that its
findings be freely disseminated to all rather than what
now appears to be a clandestine circulation.
Accordingly, I am requesting an authentic copy of the
results of whatever poll was conducted by the USAID
on the pending election in Osun.
“Needless to say, the good name and reputation of the
USAID should be jealously guarded from being
shredded or damaged by certified crocodiles in the
murky waters of Nigeria’s partisan politicking.”
In a response on July 31, USAID and the U.S. Consulate
wrote back to say they did not and had no plan to
conduct any poll on the political activities in Osun
State.
The correspondences between the USAID/U.S.
Consulate and Messrs Adeyeye and Okanlawon were
released by the APC on Friday.
PREMIUM TIMES later independently verified the
authenticity of the letters. Officials at the U.S.
consulate said the documents were genuine and that
agencies of the U.S. government do not conduct polls
on elections holding in foreign countries.
“Our only interest is for the election to be fair and
credible,” the official, who preferred not to be named
because he was not authorised to speak on the matter,
said.
When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Omisore’s
campaign organisation, an official insisted that USAID
released a poll that placed Mr. Omisore ahead of the
other aspirants.
“They cannot say that (they did not conduct a poll). It
was in the paper. The USAID is a credible
organization, how can they deny what they said?” Mr.
Odeyemi told PREMIUM TIMES.
Reacting to the development, the Osun state chapter of
the APC described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
in Osun State as a “band of liars” for circulating
information based on what it called a non-existent poll.
“The PDP in Osun are a band of liars who cannot be
trusted with the finances of the state,” the party said in
a statement by Kunle Oyatomi, its Director of
Publicity, Research and Strategy.
“The greatest weapon of a thief is an incredible ability
to lie without scruples. If such people as PDP liars have
access to the state treasury, they will loot it empty.