The South-South Governors’ Forum (SSGF) has described President Bola Tinubu’s Executive Order as a welcomed development, saying the decision was a critical shift towards restoration of constitutional integrity in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.

President TInubu had issued an Executive Order mandating a direct remittance of all oil and gas revenues to the Federation Account. Describing it as a landmark decision, the SSGF Chairman and Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, in a statement on Wednesday, said the region’s governors are in support of the president’s action.

The Forum said the Executive Order was comprehensive, unambiguous and heartwarming, and that it raised hope that after many years of opaque and complex deduction structures, the federal, state, and local governments would begin to receive their rightful entitlements from the Federation Account.

The statement reads: “The South-South region particularly welcomes the key provisions of the Executive Order, which would eliminate opaque deductions and effectively strip the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of the nebulous 30 per cent Frontier Exploration Fund. This fund often led to large idle cash balances.”