ABUJA – The South/South Consultative Youth Council has urged Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to mandate the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the Rivers bomb blast, and to prosecute those behind it.

At a press briefing on Monday, the Deputy Coordinator of the group, John Izy, noted that the incident led to the death of one and others seriously injured.

It also urged the federal government to interrogate highly placed indigenes who are allegedly behind the incident

Regretting what it described as “sinister moves to sweep the matter under the carpet,” the group frowned at attempts by some forces “to continue stroking violence to make the state ungovernable for Governor Sim Fubara” with the ultimate aim of creating a state of emergency in the state.

They therefore called on President Tinubu as an acclaimed democrat, not to allow the truncating of “the cherished system of government and IGP as well as the DSS to resist the pressure and temptation of being used as the undertaker for the burial of democracy in Rivers and Nigeria as a whole.”

“It beats our imagination that for a man who has since the return to democratic rule in 1999, benefited greatly from the people through political patronage will be behind robbing them of their peace and putting them through live threatening experiences of violence with the highest degree of using explosives on the people,” it alleged.

Continuing it noted, “It is on this note that we respectfully remind and appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stand up to the occasion to ensure the democracy for which he has dedicated his life to and sent him to exile is protected . . .

“We equally called on the Inspector General of General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Department of State Services (DSS) to resist with all sense of professionalism the pressures to serve as the undertaker and singer of the dirge for the burial of democracy . . .” in Rivers State.