By ‘Dotun Akintomide
Less than three weeks to the Ekiti Governorship election, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, popularly hailed as Eleka is already in an early lead ahead of All Progressives Congress’ flagbear, Dr Kayode Fayemi and other candidates eying the number one job in the state.
In an independent Poll result released Tuesday, by NOI Poll, Eleka who is Governor Ayodele Fayose’s Deputy led by 8 percent, after garnering 34 percent of the total support of voters sampled in the state-wide survey as against arch-rival, Fayemi’s 26 percent.
While two other seemingly popular candidates — Otunba Segun Adewale (ADP) and Rev. Tunde Afe (ANRP) respectively had 7; 6 percent of the 1000 sampled voters rooting for them.
According to the Poll result, 23 percent said they are yet to decide on who to vote for, whereas, the remaining 36 contestants enjoyed only 4 percent of the total support coming from responders shared among them.
NOI stated that the poll was conducted between June 18 and 23, 2018 in a bid to assess the preparedness of voters towards the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti State.
It also said the results came from 1,000 responders residing in Ekiti State who were randomly selected and interviewed via telephone.
In a related development, an erstwhile governor of Ekiti state, Segun Oni, has filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja to challenge the emergence of Fayemi as APC’s flagbearer for the July 14 governorship poll.
Fayemi who polled a total of 941 votes at the primary which held on May 12, defeated Oni, his closest rival by a margin of over 460 votes.
But Oni has asked the court to determine if it was proper for his opponent in the primary to contest without resigning as a member of the federal cabinet.
Meanwhile, PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan hailed the Poll result as a sign of the overwhelming support the party is getting ahead of the forthcoming election.
“Indeed, the PDP is not surprised at the outcome of the polls conducted by one of the leading, impartial country-specific and research-based polling bodies in Africa, as such represents the natural response by the people to the sterling performance of Governor Ayo Fayose as well as the popularity of the PDP candidate.
“It is instructive that the poll reflected the fact that the PDP candidate enjoys overwhelming support across the three senatorial districts while leading in goodwill among the broader voting demography cutting across all age and gender categories across the state with a significant 8-point margin against Fayemi.” Ologbondiyan said.
