A Professor of Geology at the University of Maiduguri is among the three staff members of the institution ambushed and abducted last Tuesday by Boko Haram, it was confirmed last night.

The don, Dr. Solomon Yusuf, was one of the trio in the photograph released on Friday by the terror sect.

It was also learnt that security has been beefed up in the university and its vicinity to prevent any further attack.

A reliable source said: “A Professor of Geology was among the three captured by Boko Haram terrorists while on oil exploration in the Lake Chad Basin.

“We are really sad in this academic community, we are feeling unsafe really: I mean the staff and students.

“We are appealing to the government to do anything to negotiate the release of these staff who only set out to serve their fatherland.

“Their families are distraught, we are all demoralised because it could have happened to anyone. Their children are inconsolable. We are really sad.”

A military source however said: “We are probing the incident and reviewing how the insurgents got to know about the movement of the oil exploration team.

“The insurgents have changed tactics because they have been decimated and we will respond accordingly.

“As mandated by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, we are all putting heads together to avert a recurrence.”

On the fate of UNIMAID, the source said: “We have beefed up security in and around the university to protect the community. We have done that successfully in the past few years, we will strengthen it.

“This was why the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, insisted that the university will not be shut. A closure will amount to conceding to the insurgents.”

•Text courtesy of The Nation.

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