Leading geomorphologist, Dr. Isaac Undu, has advised the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to stop spending scare resources in searching for hydrocarbons in any part of the Northern Nigeria.
In an interview on Sunday, the Benue-born scientist said “Previous studies have made it clear that even though there oil deposits in northern half of the country, none of the deposits is in commercial quantity, hence there is no need to waste government money in searching from Borno to Sokoto, to Nasarrawa and even in my Benue State”.
“I recall that ExxonMobil had done so much in Chad basin some years back and nothing positive came out of it.
“Scientific or seismic studies takes hundreds of years to make a slight adjustment. So I want to inform the government and NNPC that between the time Mobile ended its exploration in Chad basin and now, nothing different has happened.
Dr. Undu argued that “Using the scare resources of the federal government to be searching for does not exit based on previous studies amounts to fiscal rascality and Nigerians will demand refund if at the end, nothing came out of the entire search for oil.
It would be recalled that since the return of democracy, only current administration has ordered for general search of oil across the northern half of the country. The first venture in Borno State last two months ended abruptly following an ambush carried out by insurgents.
Only, last week, the search for oil in Nigeria’s inland basins resumed again in the Nasarawa State’s section of the Benue Trough by the NNPC.
Group Managing Director, NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, announced this during a visit to the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Almakura, in Lafia on Thursday last week.
Baru made it clear that the resumption of the search in fulfilment of the presidential mandate that the NNPC should resume oil exploration activities in some of the nation’s inland basins, including the Chad Basin and Benue Trough.
