The Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, has said Nigeria loses over $80bn annually due to vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta.
Kachikwu made this known in Friday in Yenagoa at the resumed dialogue with Niger Delta stakeholders as part of the visit of Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to Bayelsa.
He said that no fewer than 10,000 sabotage incidents were recorded annually at oilfields across the region.
He regretted that within the last decade, estimated 30 billion dollars revenue accrued to the Niger Delta area by way of derivation, but that the region had continued to wallow in abject poverty.
Kachikwu urged people of the area to contribute ideas toward the resolution of crises in the zone “and add value as well as derive some gain from the natural endowments of the region’’.
He said that the challenges of the region could be turned into opportunities when peace was achieved, and called on Niger Delta people to give peace a chance for the growth of the region.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is currently on a working visit to the Niger Delta in continuation of peace talks with aggrieved militants in the region.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that also on the train for the visit with the Acting President is Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Usain Usain, and Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri.