By Ali Abare Abubakar
In a rather dramatic twist of event, an online poll started by a presidential aide, Reno Omokri evidently to test the popularity of President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 general election, backfired with Gen Muhammadu Buhari of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) leading the incumbent with a large margin.
However, disturbed by the trend, aides of the president allegedly manipulated the voting process, breaching the gap between Jonathan and Buhari to just a moment when the president was slightly ahead of the opposition candidate before terminating the poll.
As at 3.20pm on Sunday, three days after the poll commenced, Buhari remained ahead of President Jonathan.
The poll asked Nigerians to vote: “If the Nigerian Presidential election were held today, who would you vote for between President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari?”
Checks by Peoples Daily revealed that on the Build Up Nigeria blog where the “Build Up Nigeria Poll: 2015 Presidential Elections” has been running since October 16, a total of 22,511 votes had been cast by Nigerians with Buhari garnering 11,153 votes which represents 49.54%.
President Goodluck Jonathan however still trailed with 10,814 representing 48.04% of the votes. A total of 544 votes were ranked among the undecided which represents 2.42%.
Reports on Saturday showed that Buhari was ahead by over 60 percent. But Jonathan’s supporters appear to have joined the voting race to narrow the gap Sunday before the poll was stopped.
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