The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Prof. Ibrahim Njodi has said that the attack and death of over 50 persons in the recent ambush laid by Boko Haram on an oil exploration team in the Lake Chad basin was an ‘Act of God” He vowed that despite the attack, the search for oil will continue in the area.
Njodi made the commitment pledge when a delegation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Ministry of Petroleum visited him in Maiduguri.
Engr. Saidu Mohammed, Chief Operating Officer in charge of gas and power unit of the Corporation, led the delegation.
Tracing the University’s partnership with the Corporation to over 12 years ago when the NNPC teed-off exploration activities in the Chad Basin, the VC described the cruel attack on the Frontier Exploration Services/Surface Geochemistry Sampling team comprising the NNPC, Consultants from University of Maiduguri, Consultants attached to the Integrated Data Services Limited, a subsidiary of the NNPC and Civilian escort team, as an act of God.
Njodi told the delegation that though the entire University community was distraught by the cruel incident of July 25th 2017, the University cannot ‘’Chicken out’’ from doing what it is supposed to do when eventually the NNPC re-organizes and return to exploration work in the area.
He noted that the situation painful as it might appear must be seen as a necessary sacrifice for the development of the country.
NJodi, however, called on the NNPC to stand firm beside the University and the families of the bereaved and provide the much needed support to overcome the massive setback wrought by the insurgent attack.
Mohammed said as a responsible corporate entity the NNPC would do everything within its means to support the University and the families of the victims of the attack.
“We have been great partners with the University of Maiduguri for many years and certainly when losses like this happen and under this circumstance, we cannot abandon our partners to their fate,’’ Engr. Mohammed said.
He promised to return to the University after conferring with the Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director of the NNPC.
Meanwhile the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru upon return of the Delegation over the weekend, announced some short-term palliatives for victims of the attacks. NAN
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