A Port Harcourt-based cleric, Pastor Eugene Ogu, has urged politicians in Rivers to set aside their differences and embrace peace in the interest of the state.
Ogu, who is Senior Pastor, Abundant Life Evangelical Mission, Port Harcourt, made the call on Sunday in his message at the thanksgiving by All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the church.
He said that the state needed peace for development and that the people of the state required wisdom to make attaining the need possible.
“Rivers needs peace and whatsoever that is required of us to make sure peace reigns in this state, let us give it, because if development starts, it is for the state,” he said.

Ogu said that it was the duty of the church to cry to God for peace to reign in the state.
He prayed that God should do what He wished with masterminds of killing of innocent people before, during and after the 2015 general elections in the state, and allow lasting peace to prevail in the state “for development’’.
Speaking during the thanksgiving, APC’s governorship candidate in the election in the state, Dr Dakuku Peterside, thanked God for His mercies and kindness to him and the party.
Peterside said that God did enough for the party and its members during the elections in the state for which it was imperative to appreciate Him.
“We went round the state for campaigns and we were attacked in several communities and in Okrika in particular, a police officer was killed when unknown gunmen opened fire at us.
“Many of our women and men were injured; it could have been worse if God had not protected us,” he said.
He said that though some members of the party were killed during the elections, the party remained grateful to God for standing by it and the members.
Peterside also said that it was God that sustained the APC and its candidates throughout the period the election cases lasted in the courts.
“The outcome of the Supreme Court judgment cannot make us to lose our confidence in God; we will continue to trust God the more,” he said.