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Farmers and herders in six rural communities across Bokkos and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State have signed 25 peace agreements aimed at restoring peace and rebuilding trust after years of deadly conflict.

The agreements were reached by men and women drawn from the communities of Sha, Bum and Sopp, where recurrent clashes have claimed many lives and led to the destruction of property.

The peace accords followed a series of dialogue and reconciliation engagements facilitated by the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), as part of efforts to strengthen social cohesion and find lasting solutions to violence in fragile, conflict-affected rural communities.

A participant and senior district head from Bokkos Local Government Area, Lazaros David, described the peace process as timely and critical, given the scale of challenges faced by the communities.

READ ALSO: Operatives Arrest 184, Rescue Minors In Anti-Trafficking Raids In Plateau

According to him, the organisers succeeded in bringing the communities together at the grassroots level through sustained engagement.

“They followed the programme time after time to ensure its success. They identified our problems and discussed them together with us,” he said.

David expressed confidence that the agreements would be implemented, noting that community leaders would use platforms such as churches and mosques to reinforce the peace process.

“Where you often see your people, we’ll make sure this peace holds,” he added.

Another participant, Chiroma Haruna Idris, said the initiative would go a long way in restoring peace and stability between farming and herding communities.

Human rights activist and politician, Omoyele Sowore, has claimed that 90 per cent of federal lawmakers and other elected officials would not be elected if elections in Nigeria were conducted transparently.

Sowore made the remark while reacting to the controversy trailing the amendments to the Electoral Act, particularly provisions relating to the electronic transmission of election results.

On Tuesday, the Senate amended the Electoral Act to permit the electronic transmission of election results, a move many Nigerians had clamoured for.

READ ALSO: Senate Reverses Stance To Allow E-Transmission Of Election Results, Retains Manual Backup

However, the lawmakers retained a provision allowing manual collation of results in areas where internet connectivity fails — a clause many critics have described as unnecessary.

Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Sowore argued that lawmakers are reluctant to enact reforms that would strengthen electoral transparency because they believe such changes would cost them their seats.

According to him, the argument that poor network coverage justifies manual collation is merely an excuse.

“This excuse that there is no network in some states is just another balloon air on the part of these guys. They don’t want transparent elections because if elections are transparent, 90 per cent of them will not make it to the National Assembly — and of course the presidency and other elected positions, they know that,” Sowore said.

The former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) described the Senate’s decision to retain manual collation of election results as “clever by half.”

He argued that the provision was deliberately inserted to create an avenue to revert to what he called the “hardcoded way of reporting elections,” which, according to him, has eroded public trust in the electoral process.

‘Adopt electronic voting’

Sowore further criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) current IREV system, describing it as outdated. He suggested that Nigeria should adopt electronic voting, similar to the system used in India.

“I said it yesterday and I will repeat it again, I am not even a fan of all these old systems. By now, we should be doing what they are doing in India. India has 900 million registered voters and they use electronic voting as their own way of expressing the wishes of the people and those are almost foolproof.

“I don’t think you hear a lot of tribunal sittings in India after 900 million votes and we have only 90 million here, we should be able to go for electronic voting,” he said.

A shooter killed nine people and injured dozens more at a secondary school and residence in a remote part of western Canada on Tuesday, before the suspect took their own life.

The killings occurred in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, a picturesque mountain valley town in the foothills of the Rockies.

A total of 27 people were wounded, including two with serious injuries and 25 who suffered non-life-threatening injuries, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.

Canadian media have reported that the shooter was female, but the RCMP declined to provide any details on the suspect’s identity in a press conference on Tuesday.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the “horrific acts of violence” and announced he was suspending plans to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Wednesday, where he had been set to hold talks with allies on transatlantic defence readiness.

Police said an alert was issued about an active shooter at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon.

As police searched the school, they found six people shot dead. A seventh person with a gunshot wound died en route to hospital.

Separately, police found two more bodies at a residence in Tumbler Ridge.

The residence is “believed to be connected to the incident,” police said.

At the school, “an individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self‑inflicted injury,” police said.

In a statement, the municipality of Tumbler Ridge said: “There are no words sufficient for the heartbreak our community is experiencing tonight.”

Tumbler Ridge student Darian Quist told the public broadcaster CBC that he was in his mechanics class when there was an announcement that the school was in lockdown.

He said that initially he “didn’t think anything was going on,” but started receiving “disturbing” photos about the carnage at the school.

“It set in what was happening,” Quist said.

He said he stayed in lockdown for more than two hours until police stormed in, ordering everyone to put their hands up before escorting them out of the school.

Darian’s mother, Shelley Quist, said she embraced her son when they finally connected after the site was declared safe.

“He’s not going to be out of my sight for a while now,” she told the CBC.

Trent Ernst, a local journalist who was previously a substitute teacher at Tumbler Ridge, told AFP that one of his children just graduated from the school.

“There’s been troubled kids here in town before,” he said.

Police have not yet released any information about the age of the shooter or the victims.

‘Horrific violence’

Mass shootings are extremely rare in Canada, but 11 people were killed in Vancouver in April during a vehicle attack that targeted a Filipino cultural festival.

British Columbia Premier David Eby called the violence “unimaginable.”

The RCMP’s northern district commander Ken Floyd described the incident as “a rapidly evolving and dynamic situation.”

“This has been an incredibly difficult and emotional day for our community, and we are grateful for the cooperation shown as officers continue their work to advance the investigation,” he said.

The RCMP said officers were searching other homes and properties in the community to see if there were additional sites connected to the incident.

Tumbler Ridge, a quiet town with roughly 2,400 residents, is more than 1,100 kilometers (680 miles) north of Vancouver, British Columbia’s largest city.