Renowned pollster, Ben Ephson Jnr., has denied reports that a recent survey he conducted, had President John Evans Atta Mills trailing flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, by more than 5% of respondents sampled.

The New Statesman newspaper on Friday published that the ruling party commissioned Mr Ephson to conduct an “independent” opinion poll in April on the chances of President Mills ahead of the 2012 election.

According to the publication, Ben Ephson’s poll, killed the morale of the top functionaries of the NDC as the results made for grim reading.

The newspaper claimed results of Ben Ephson’s poll indicated that Nana Addo obtained 50.05%., whiles President Mills received 44.40%.

The grim aspect of the Senior Journalist's April poll, was the finding that the NPP presidential candidate defeated President Mills in seven out of the 10 regions in the country.

"The regional breakdown of Ben Ephson’s polls is as follows: Ashanti-79.8% for Nana Akufo-Addo, 19.1% for Mills; Brong Ahafo - 55 .7% for Nana, 40.4% for Mills; Central Region – Nana Addo, 59.8, with 39.4 for Mills; Eastern - 68.9% for Nana Addo, 31.4% for Mills; Greater Accra -48.2% for Nana Addo, 46.9% for Mills; Northern - 51.3% for Nana Addo, 44.5% for Mills; Upper East - 39.8% for Nana Addo, 60.1% for Mills; Upper West - 40.4% for Nana Addo, 52.1% for Mills; Volta - 18.9% for Nana Addo, 74.9% for Mills; Western - 52.8% for Nana Addo, 41.5% for Mills," the newspaper reported.

But Mr Ephson, who is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Dispatch Newspaper, discounted the publication in an exclusive interview with peacefmonline.com and Okay FM.

According to him, he always makes public the findings of every survey he conducts, and thus described the report as baseless and unmeritorious. He urged the NPP to continue tickling themselves as they did prior to the 2008 general elections.

"It is never true that i've conducted any such polls...They (NPP) should go ahead and lie to themselves...These are some of the things they did to Akufo-Addo in 2008 making him believe the election was a done deal...in the long run...the party was defeated...listen, if your mum is dead and you lie about it that she is fast asleep, after three days the stench from the decomposed body will show that you lied," Ben Ephson proverbially said.