Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, says Nigeria is losing at least $80bn annually to vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta.
Kachikwu made this known on 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 $30bn 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.
Kachikwu, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Usain Usain, and Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, accompanied Osinbajo on the trip.
(NAN)
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