The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has unveiled a 20-point agenda aimed at instituting permanent peace in the Niger Delta oil-producing region, ThisDay reports.

Speaking yesterday on “Oil Sector Militancy Challenges…Roadmap to Closure,” Kachikwu said in his monthly podcast that the country lost billions of dollars at the height of militancy in 2016.

According to him, the Niger Delta crisis, coupled with the 45 per cent drop in oil production, worsened the financial challenges of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The minister stated that the present administration had initially made efforts to end the crisis by launching a seven-point roadmap, engaging the oil-producing communities and sustaining the Amnesty Programme for repentant militants.

To clean-up the environment, Kachikwu said Buhari would continue to implement his seven-point agenda and other behind-the-scenes engagements of the relevant stakeholders in addition to the newly developed 20 point agenda.