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Onshore/offshore:
S�South govs vow to fight on
By
Felix Ofou
Politics
Editor (Lagos)
and
Bassey Inyang
Correspondent
(Calabar)
Governors
of the six South South states on Tuesday in Calabar echoed what could
aptly be described as a battle cry against the 22 governors who are
seeking the reintroduction of the onshore/offshore dichotomy in the
sharing of the nation�s revenue.
The
19 Northern governors and three in the South West have filed a suit at
Supreme Court asking for a reversal of the law that abrogated the
dichotomy.
The
stance of the South South governors was disclosed by Rivers State Governor
Peter Odili who said he and his colleagues will fight to the finish to
protect the abrogation of the law, passed by the National Assembly and
assented to by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He
made the point at the maiden meeting and rally of the South South Peoples
Assembly (SSPA), saying: �Those who have gone to court to reverse the
abrogation of the onshore/offshore dichotomy will not succeed. The
governors of the South South zone would leave no stone unturned. We will
fight and we will win that fight�.
The
people of the South South, he added, must take their destiny in their own
hands, stressing that if the leaders of the zone had failed in the past
they will not fail the in future.
The
people of the region will achieve their dreams, Odili stressed, because
the moment at hand calls for action.
They
also asked the federal government not to cede the Bakassi Peninsula to
Cameroon.
The
SSPA brought eminent sons and daughters of the region together to speak in
unison, perhaps for the first time, and featured statements from prominent
leaders of the zone.
Steering
Committee Chairman Raymond Dokpesi said the gathering was momentous and
historic. He reeled out the objectives of the body and insisted that the
people are prepared, �more than ever before, to work assiduously and
collectively to free the zone from the grip of poverty, ignorance, squalor
and imposed deprivation�.
The
call for the emergence of the President from the zone in 2007 was
reiterated as much as the quest for resource control. �We must work in
concert with relevant government organisations for the purposes of
achieving the aims and objectives of the assembly. We must work in close
contact with all the political parties to ensure the emergence of South
South Presidential candidates�, Dokpesi added.
Second
Republic Senate President Joseph Wayas repeated the views and maintained
that the resources of the country must be controlled by the
people.
Former
federal commissioner for information, Edwin Clark described the suit of
the 22 governors as provocative and urged that it be resisted.
The
one-day event was attended by two governors in the zone, Odili and Donald
Duke (Cross River State). The other four were represented by their
deputies.
Other prominent leaders of the
zone, such as Mike Akhigbe, David Ejoor, Melford Okilo and Florence Ita
Giwa also attended the meeting.
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