DEFYING what he considered to be threats to his life, Bayelsa Resident
\nElectoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Baritor Kpagih, has revealed that he was
\noffered money by certain interests to skew the state\u00eds governorship
\nelection in favour of their candidate. He disclosed that his refusal to be
\nbribed had pitted them against him.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, Kpagih said that he had been
\nreceiving threats to his life since the cancellation of the Southern Ijaw
\nLocal Council poll results. Also, he denied a personal relationship with
\nformer President Goodluck Jonathan, noting that both of them were not in
\nthe Nigeria Customs at the same time.<\/p>\n
The Bayelsa REC said that election should not be seen as a do-or-die
\naffair, but rather, as a call to service. He told The Guardian: \u00ecSome
\npeople tried to bribe me to help them win the governorship election and
\nthis itself was a misconception by these individuals. This is because
\nthere is no way I can help anybody win an election. Mine was to oversee
\nthe process. I can\u00edt falsify results, because they only come to the head
\noffice after they have been collated at all other levels. I only stay in
\nthe situation room and oversee collation.\u00ed\u00ed<\/p>\n
He said those who had approached him to swing the election in their favour
\nwere now persecuting him and spreading all sorts of false stories about
\nhim.<\/p>\n
\u00eb\u00ebI believe it was those who had tried to bribe me before to help them rig
\nthe election that are now behind all sorts of stories, being bandied
\naround about me. My refusal had infuriated them and they started by saying
\nI was missing and that I have gone underground and all sorts of stories.
\nPeople should not take election as a do-or-die affair. I told them, I
\ncan\u00edt help them to rig the election and that they should use the money
\nthey wanted to bribe me with to go to the grassroots and canvass for the
\npeople\u00eds votes,\u00ee he said.<\/p>\n
On the threats to his life, Kpagih said they started after the election,
\nbut that they had become more frequent in the last few days.<\/p>\n
\u00eb\u00ebSomebody called me on the phone and threatened me and since then, I have \u00ecQuite a number of people who are my friends have advised me to avoid all On his alleged relationship with Jonathan, the Ogoni-born electoral boss He wondered why people would want to malign his character, just because he He advised politicians, \u00eb\u00ebto concentrate on what is expected to be done \u00eb\u00ebI joined the customs service as a graduate, while Dr. Jonathan joined as \u00eb\u00ebThe first time I met him was when he was the vice president and we never On the violence that greeted the governorship polls, Kpagih said that \u00eb\u00ebWhat keeps baffling me is the fact that up till now, nobody is talking The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DEFYING what he considered to be threats to his life, Bayelsa Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mr. Baritor Kpagih, has revealed that he was offered money by certain interests to skew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nbeen receiving all sorts of threats. These have come through text messages
\nand others. Just on Thursday<\/span><\/span>, two strange people visited my house in
\nYenagoa. They refused to identify themselves but told my people that they
\nhad an appointment with me and I knew for a fact that I didn\u00edt have any
\nappointment with anybody that day.<\/p>\n
\nthe hassles and stay away from Bayelsa State because my safety cannot be
\nguaranteed. But I have a job to do and I am going to see it through,\u00ed\u00ed he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\nsaid he joined the Customs Service a few years after Jonathan had left the
\nservice and that at no time were they ever course mates.<\/p>\n
\nhad decided to \u00ecfly straight.\u00ee<\/p>\n
\nwithin the framework of the law and Independent National Electoral
\nCommission (INEC) guidelines for elections.<\/p>\n
\na School Certificate holder. He left the service around 1977 to go to the
\nuniversity. I also went to the university in the same year and after
\ngraduation, I joined the service, while he did not return to the service.<\/p>\n
\nhad any close relationship. I was retired prematurely, seven years before
\nthe mandatory year. If he was my close friend and he was the vice
\npresident, wouldn\u00edt he have helped me to stay in service?\u00ed\u00ed he queried.<\/p>\n
\npeople should look into the root causes of the violent clashes, instead of
\nlooking for scapegoats to heap blame on.<\/p>\n
\nabout the arms and ammunition that were used to wreak violence on the
\npeople. Nobody is looking into how the arms got into Southern Ijaw and who
\nbrought them into the area. They were freely deployed into the communities
\nand nobody is talking about those things,\u00ed\u00ed he added.<\/p>\n