THE — peace accord was signed at the headquarters of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission, DSIEC, under the watchful eyes of the State Commissioner of Police, Abaniwonda Olufemi, representatives of other law enforcement agencies in the state and the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, All Progressives Congress, APC, Labour Party, other political parties and their chairmanship candidates took part in in the exercise.

In his remarks on the occasion, DSIEC Chairman, Dr. Jerry Agbaike, stressed the need for participating political parties to conduct themselves with decorum and shun hate speech, blackmail and vendetta.

Dr. Agbaike said the Commission was impressed with the conduct of the 10 participating political parties, which he maintained was not surprising because Deltans were generally peaceful and peace was an integral part of the people’s culture.

He, however, said the peace accord was necessary to guarantee the enabling environment required for the smooth conduct of the election, emphasizing the need to shun acts and utterances capable of provoking anger and inciting violence.

The DSIEC Chairman warned against thuggery and ballot box snatching, urging the candidates to be prepared to imbibe the spirit of sportsmanship by accepting the outcome of elections and congratulating one another, insisting that any disagreement with the outcome of the election should be resolved in the relevant law courts.

“As you can see, the seriousness of this oeace accord is evinced by the presence of Heads of security agencies in the state. They have the wherewithal and advanced technology to comb the security-election nexus, anticipate, plan and put in place strategies to neutralize or diminish potential risks posed to the conduct of the 2024 elections.

“To be forewarned is to be forearmed because culprits of any security breaches or electoral infractions shall be promptly reported to the appropriate security agency for prosecution and if found guilty, severely dealt with in accordance with the law”, the DSIEC boss said.