Port Harcourt, Nigeria--Dakuku Peterside and Nyesom Wike, the two main candidates running for governor of Nigeria's Rivers state, signed a peace accord this week in the local capital Port Harcourt.
That an agreement was needed in the first place is a measure of the high stakes in Saturday's election in the oil-rich southern delta region.
Fear and anxiety have gripped Rivers after an upsurge in violent attacks in the run-up to the vote.
Peterside's All Progressives Congress (APC), which controls the state, has claimed 55 of its supporters have been killed by thugs from Wike's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has dominated national politics for the last 16 years until last month's defeat in the presidential polls.
During the presidential elections on March 28, the APC complained of mass vote-rigging by the PDP. Thousands laid siege to the local offices of the electoral commission and a curfew was imposed.
But political rivalry is just one factor fuelling the tensions. As elsewhere in Nigeria, there is also power, money and a backdrop of ethnic identity.
Rivers is a key battleground for both parties in the gubernatorial polls, which are taking place in 29 out of Nigeria's 36 states to cement local power for the next four years.
The PDP has won easy majorities in Rivers since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, giving them access to huge revenues from the oil and gas sector based in the state and off its shores.
Nearly 95 percent of state voters in the presidential election backed outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, who hails from next door Bayelsa state.
AFP
