Senator Anietie Okon hits back at Federal Government over attempts to surreptitiously re introduce Onshore Offshore oil dichotomy

A socio-political group in Akwa Ibom State, Akwa
Ibom Leaders Vanguard, has condemned recommendation from a committee set up by the All Progressives Congress and led by the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, to reintroduce onshore/offshore oil dichotomy.

It was gathered that the committee which has submitted its report had recommended among others the reintroduction of resource control by stating specifically that oil mineral found onshore should belong to the federal government while those found offshore should be owned by the states.

The leader of the group, Senator Anietie Okon, while addressing journalists in Uyo today said that any attempt to reintroduce the abrogated onshore/offshore oil dichotomy will amount to creating irredeemably disaster in Nigeria.

“We want to state explicitly and unambiguously our concerns and consternation about the ambivalent and duplicitous position of the APC as it is clear to every discerning mind that the APC is a party in disarray,’’he said.

Speaking, Okon added that the report has once again uncovered the evil agenda of APC, noting that the report brings to the fore the unlimited confusion which is the hallmark of the party in which the country has been subjected to in the past three years.

Wondering why the bigwigs of the APC in the South South region are‘dangerously quiet over this calculated attempt to subtly reintroduce through the back door the vexed onshore/ offshore oil dichotomy that has long been settled in Nigeria,’ he said Akwa Ibom would never accept any recourse to onshore/offshore oil dichotomy.

Okon explained that the moves to reintroduce the dichotomy are illegal and described it as an expensive joke taken too far.

He stated that the country might not survive the backdoor attempt to bring back what had long been settled.

Okon, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party also picked holes in President Muhammadu Buhari’s new year message over plans to construct a rail line to Maradi in Niger State while many states in the country do not have any rail link.

He also called on the APC to come to terms with the “reality regarding true federalism that has overwhelmingly been endorsed by Nigerians as the only credible pathway to sustainable development and continued existence of Nigeria as an indivisible virile and strong nation.