The e Bayelsa State Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Baritor Kpagih, has said that he did not cancel the results of the controversial Southern Ijaw Local Government Area election unilaterally.
Kpagih, who spoke in a telephone interview, said the cancellation of the SILGA poll results was not his sole decision and that it (cancellation) was not premeditated.
He said, “I can’t just wake up and cancel an election. I was with three National Electoral Commissioners that day and we even wanted to brief all the political parties. But it was getting too dark.
‘’The statement I read that day was a prepared statement. It wasn’t an offhand thing. I even said it thrice that I was reading the statement on behalf of the commission.”
Kpagih had, while cancelling the poll in Southern Ijaw, cited widespread violence, ballot snatching and hostage taking of INEC officials and corps members as reasons.
He used the opportunity to dismiss claims in some quarters that he went underground due to the cancellation. Kpagih, who expressed shock and anger over reports that he disappeared and was under pressure by some politicians, lamented that Nigerians, especially politicians, were always fond of attacking personalities instead of issues, whenever things did not go their way.
He also condemned some reports that sensationalised his story without proper investigation.
Kpagih added that after the election, he took time off with the permission of his boss, the INEC chairman, to take a deserved rest and see his family.
He stated, “Only for me to hear different sort of stories being bandied around that I have disappeared; that I was on the run; that I was this and I was that.
“I don’t know what they want from me. In Nigeria, when things are not going the way of some people, they start attacking individuals instead of the issues involved.
“I was baffled when I heard that I have run away and all sorts of things. I am fine and alive, but my major worry is that we are still doing things the way we have always done up till today. Instead of cross-checking facts, people just write things as they like.”
On the rescheduled poll in SILGA, he said, “Our national office will make a pronouncement in no distant time on the next action to take on the issue of the election, because right now, it is out of my hands.’’
