The Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris and the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Musa Daura, has brokered a peace deal between leaders of the two main political parties in River State over the crisis that has rocked the state for some time.

The truce was brokered at a peace meeting held in Abuja on Tuesday, where Governor Nyesom Wike and leaders of other political parties vowed to play the game by the rules in the forthcoming re-run elections in the state, as well as to prevail on their supporters against violence.

This is coming on the heels of the postponement of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

All the parties are to reconvene in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital to further consolidate on the commitment to peace reached in the meeting.

The Secretary of INEC, Augusta Ogakwu, on Tuesday released a statement to the effect that the election was rescheduled due to reports of violence and fatalities in the Rivers State.

The statement read in part: “as a responsible organisation and conscious of the violence, maiming and fatalities which accompanied the previous election in March as well as developments in the state since then, the commission cannot ignore such credible reports,

“In the circumstances, therefore, it is compelled to further postpone the rerun legislative elections in Rivers State as one of the principal conditions earlier stipulated for the return of the state for the conclusion of the election has, regrettably, not been met,” she stated.

Consequently, the APC in Rivers State released a statement, blaming the PDP-led state government for the violence that led to the postponement of the elections.

APC publicity secretary in the state, Chris Finebone, the party blamed Governor Wike for the hate speeches that stirred his “foot soldiers” into bombing and burning of the INEC office as well as the campaign office of Magnus Abe, an APC senatorial candidate in Bori area of the state.