BEVERLY HILLS, July 26, (THEWILL) – Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped 10 members of a university research team prospecting for oil in northeast Nigeria for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
According to NNPC spokesman, Ndu Ughamadu, the state oil company, which contracted the work, has been surveying for more than a year for what it says could be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin.
Ughamadu said the contractors, working as consultants, were kidnapped near Jibi village in Borno state on Tuesdayafternoon. The village is in Magumeri local government area, about 50 km (30 miles) from the state capital, Maiduguri.
“About 10 members of the University of Maiduguri geology and surveying department were abducted by suspected Boko Haram members,” Ughamadu said, revealing that the group included academic staff, drivers and other contractors.
The university also stated that some of its lecturers, who were accompanied by security staff, had not returned on Tuesdayfrom a prospecting trip as its spokesman said the university was waiting for a report from security agencies.
The NNPC is trying to reduce its reliance on crude from the southern Niger Delta where militant attacks cut production by more than a third in 2016, deepening the recession in Africa’s biggest economy as Nigeria relies on oil for two-thirds of its revenue.
THEWILL recalls that NNPC Chief, Maikanti Baru, at the beginning of July, said: “We are working with the security agencies for an early return to the Chad Basin,” aiming for drilling to start in the fourth quarter of the year.
However, the region has been rocked for eight years by an Islamist insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000 people and forced some 2.7 million to flee their homes but the conflict has not deterred NNPC’s search for oil in the region.
