Freed dons: Unimaid committed to oil exploration in Chad Basin

The University of Maiduguri has defied the abduction of its lecturers that lasted over eight months before they regained freedom by expressing willingness to align with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to resume oil exploration activities in the Chad Basin.

Leading the three lecturers and the Management team of the University on a visit to the NNPC, the University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Njodi said the freed lecturers and the entire university community were ready to re-mobilize for oil exploration in the Chad Basin.

Njodi said despite the harrowing experience of the dons in the captivity of the Boko Haram insurgents, the university was focused on carrying through the exploration programme in the inland sedimentary basins.

The freed lecturers who accompanied the Vice-Chancellor are: Dr. Solomon Nehemiah Yusuf, Mr. Yusuf Ibrahim, both of the Geology Department of the university and Mr. Haruna Dashe, of the Works Department of the Ivory Tower.

The Vice-Chancellor said he regretted to announce the demise of one of the victims of the attack, Muhammed Alhaji Kolo, who died as a result of gun-shot wounds inflicted on him by the insurgents.

He expressed profound gratitude to the Management of NNPC led by Dr. Maikanti Baru, saying, the university community would not forget the support the corporation extended to the families of the victims at their hours of need.

He sought more succor for the affected lectures, stressing that they passed through unimaginable trauma in the hands of their abductees.

Responding, Baru called for a minute silence for the soul of the victim who died during the attack, saying , NNPC was totally in support of the university.

The NNPC GMD thanked the academics for their visit, saying that the corporation was ready to mobilize to the Chad Basin for further exploration activities noting that the corporation would work rigorously with the university and all relevant security agencies to fortify the environment for smooth exploration activities.

He remarked that it would be a great mark of honour to the departed for the corporation and the university to resume exploration work in the basin.

The GMD stated that the corporation was convinced on the need to intensify exploration activities in the North given the need to boost the nation’s oil reserves in line with the aspiration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the growth of the oil and gas industry.