Reports say some Nigerian scientists searching for crude in the Lake Chad have been kidnapped by unknown gunmen.
The exact number of victims has not been confirmed at press time but a spokesperson of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, confirmed the kidnap .
WE learnt that the abductors of the oil workers on Tuesday were suspected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram.
Sources in Borno said the scientists and engineers who were moving alongside some personnel of the Civilian-JTF, were ambushed near a village called Jibi in Gubio Local Government Area.
A top personnel of the NNPC currently on exploration duty in Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State confirmed that the whereabouts of some officials could not be ascertained.
The source, who pleaded not to be named due to the sensitivity of information, told PREMIUMTIMES that most of the personnel that are “supposed to be at the location where they were reportedly attacked could not be reached through their special devices of communication.”
“I have just received a call from our head office asking us to confirm the attack if we have had any contact with our personnel who were supposed to be at the location where they were reportedly attacked.
“We tried reaching some of our boys that were recently deployed from Alkaleri project site through our crew channel and we could not get t hem”, he said.
A medical personnel who spoke on strict condition of anonymity confirmed that a large number of injured persons were brought into the Accident and Emergency department late Tuesday evening and were being attended to.
The NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu has also confirmed the kidnap of the scientist.
He said those abducted were not NNPC direct staff but sub-contractors.
It would be recalled that a department in the NNPC responsible for the exploration sub-contracted part of the work to the Geology department of the University of Maiduguri as part of efforts to encourage indigenous scientists, the spokesperson explained.
It is those employees of the university Geology department that were kidnapped, he said.
The reported attack is said to be coming five days after the Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, issued a directive for the arrest of the Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, within 40 days.
The kidnap also comes about two months after the NNPC management announced that it was resuming oil exploration around the Lake Chad area following assurances by the Nigeria military that the security situation had improved in the area that was once under the control of Boko Haram.
