10 scientists exploring oil in Lake Chad kidnapped by suspected by Boko Haram

Vanguard reports that Nigerian scientists ‎searching for crude in Lake Chad have been kidnapped by suspected members of Boko Haram Islamists.

“About 10 staff from the survey and geological department of the University of Maiduguri were abducted on Tuesday,” said Ndu Ughamadu of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Ughamadu also said the NNPC had contracted the team to carry out research work on oil exploration activities taking place in the Lake Chad basin.

Report had it that the victims were abducted near a village called Jibi in Gubio local government area on Tuesday, July 25, while moving alongside some personnel of the Civilian-JTF.

A top personnel of the NNPC currently on exploration duty in Alkaleri local government area of Bauchi state who pleaded not to be named due to the sensitivity of information, said the whereabouts of some officials could not be ascertained.

He said: “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 them.”

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.

NNPC has been surveying for more than a year for what it says could be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin, a region wracked by Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency.