From: Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Anxiety have gripped many residents of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, following reported abduction of about six lecturers of the University of Maiduguri, some oil workers and security personnel who were ambushed by Boko Haram on an highway.
Some workers from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and UNIMAID lecturers engaged by the corporation as consultants for the oil prospecting in Kukawa area of Lake Chad, northern Borno reportedly ran into Boko Haram ambush while returning to Maiduguri, on Tuesday, evening with security escorts including Civilian JTF along Magumeri road.
UNIMAID Director of Radio and Publicity, Prof. Danjuma Gambo, said the authority was yet to receive full report of the incident from the military.
“It is true that all the lecturer-consultants to NNPC who went to the field yesterday are yet to return. The university is yet to get full detail of what happened from the military and we can’t make any statement now,” he told Daily Sun.
Meanwhile, a professor whose colleague was among the victims of the abduction said five lecturers from the Geography department of the University were involved. “They may either have been killed or ‘abducted by Boko Haram. There is anxiety everywhere on the campus about their whereabouts. Families and relations have been coming to ask questions. Everybody is worried,” the don who preferred anonymity said.
Daily Sun learnt that many of the families of the lecturers, oil workers and CJTF have been making frantic efforts to ascertain the situation through the military.
NNPC suspended oil prospecting in the Lake Chad basin in the wake of Boko Haram attack in the region until few weeks ago when it resumed.