The sitting governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, has been projected as the likely winner of the forthcoming November 11 governorship election in the state by an independent research group, Precious Hands and Brains Consult, ahead of the election.
Precious Hands and Brains Consult in the report of the poll released to journalists in Ugheli on Thursday, which was conducted in the eight local governments across Bayelsa state, indicated that Governor Diri was shoulder ahead of other contestants in the coming election.
The research consult coordinated by the former Editor of Guardian Newspapers, Mr Abraham Ogbodo in the poll report, maintained that Governor Diri has a wide margin of lead in the eight local government areas of Bayelsa State from the research conducted.
The poll gathered by a 12-man team comprising Dr Peter Omoko, Dr Mike Moemeka, Goodnews Gayaovwi, and Moses Peter Ukochovwera among others, showed that the governor would emerge victorious considering the opinion of the electorate in the State.
According to the report which was anchored on participatory democracy, Diri has a wide margin of lead in all the local government areas of the state.
However, the research consultant noted that the reason for conducting the poll was to promote good governance and to determine the re-electability of Governor Diri for a second tenure in office.
According to the consult, the data used to get the result of the poll were collated from Brass, Ekeremor, Kolokuma/Opokuma, Nembe, Ogbia, Sagbama, Southern Ijaw and Yenagoa local government areas of the state, noting that “the eight local government areas of the state, indicated that the governor was shoulder ahead of other contenders.
“Our poll result was rather too optimistic, and we then decided to place it against concrete evidence of good governance on the ground. Figures are inadequate when dealing with humans with hopes and aspirations for their children. We needed proof to match the result of the field survey.
“This led us to the second project, Diri’s first tenure scorecard or the list of some verified projects executed by the self-styled Prosperity Administration.
“Governor Diri’s scorecard covers major road construction, reconstruction of flood-impacted roads, internal roads construction and reconstruction, especially in the state capital, Yenagoa.
“There are also recorded interventions in education, health, agriculture, security, and sports. Workers’ welfare/equity and human capacity development initiatives are on the scorecard. These have been accentuated by constituency projects executed by the 24 members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly.”
It added that “The data analysis presented here is the integrated data collated from the eight LGAs in September 2023. The sample size for data totals 990 respondents. The number is obtained by summing up the sample sizes of the strata.
“The composition of the 990 respondents is as follows: 463 males and 527 females. In terms of age, the majority falls within the 30-39 years range which is unarguably the most active in political activities. Their marital status is married 50.1 per cent; single 36.2 per cent, and divorced 13.7 per cent. Importantly, 82.3 per cent have Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). On how they get their information on the Prosperity Administration, 56.2 per cent said they relied on the radio.
“Another 44.4 per cent maintained that Governor Diri could improve communication with Bayelsans through the same medium. The popularity of radio among the Bayelsa electorate and perhaps elsewhere is linked to the GSM technology. Every phone has FM enabling voters to be properly informed. Integrated Data Presentation and Analysis (poll result). We had overstepped a little into characterisation and asked the aspect of Diri that attracted them the most, 58.3 per cent stated his ‘simplicity’; 20.3 per cent said his accommodating nature; 12.4 per cent said his accessibility, while 9 per cent said his openness.”