FG Won’t Revisit Onshore-Offshore Dichotomy, Says APC Chieftain

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The National Vice Chairman (South-south) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ntufam Hilliard Eta, has said the federal government will not resuscitate the rested issue of onshore-offshore dichotomy despite its inclusion in the report on fiscal federalism and restructuring submitted by the Malam Nasir el-Rufai-led committee to the ruling party recently.

Eta, in a statement issued yesterday by his Media Aide, Bassey Ita, said the federal government would not resurrect the issue “for obvious reasons” which will amount to waking up an issued already resolved by a previous administration.

Against the background of renewed agitations in some quarters that the issue of onshore-offshore dichotomy be considered along with other conditions in the APC’s restructuring report, the South-south APC chieftain declared that the issue has been affirmed by previous governments and therefore cannot be whipped up again.

‘’I have been in touch with the presidency on this and I have had the assurance of the president that the issue of the political settlement of the onshore-offshore dichotomy can only be reaffirmed by this government. So the idea of resurrecting it now does not arise,” Eta said.
He reiterated government’s assurance to impact the lives of oil bearing communities which he said have suffered neglect and untold hardship arising from exploration activities in the area.

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