The National Civil Society Council of Nigeria has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to set up an independent Truth and Reconciliation Committee to address the lingering political crisis in Rivers.

The president of NCSCN, Blessing Akinlosotu, made the appeal while addressing journalists in Abuja.

The committee, he said, should comprise elder statesmen outside Rivers, such as former presidents, past vice-presidents, former Senate presidents and speakers of the House of Representatives and others.

Mr Akinlosotu said the committee should be mandated to make unbiased and in-depth enquiry into the root and proximal causes of the crisis and extract vital facts and figures that would lead to a sustainable and generally satisfactory resolution.

“For us here in the Civil Society Council, the milk has been spilt already, and it is too late to cry over the spilt milk.

“However, we advise that, if possible, the state of emergency in Rivers should be terminated within next three months.

”The wisdom behind and success of the state of emergency will be tested and attested by the level of peace, stability, progress and political harmony achieved in the state by the sole administrator,” he said.

(NAN)