Group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd Mele Kyari has expressed shock at the death of the outgoing secretary-general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Mohammed Barkindo.
Barkindo, 63, died late Tuesday hours after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.
Kyari noted that the death of Barkindo, his predecessor at the NNPC, is a “great loss”.
“We lost our esteemed Dr Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo. He died at about 11pm yesterday 5th July 2022. Certainly a great loss to his immediate family, the NNPC, our country Nigeria, the OPEC and the global energy community. Burial arrangements will be announced shortly,” he tweeted early Wednesday.
Reacting to Barkindo’s death, a former lawmaker Senator Shehu Sani said Barkindo’s death reflects the transient nature of life.
“Muhammad Sanusi Barkindo, former GMD NNPC and until recently, @OPECSecretariat scribe, was honoured yesterday. He died 11pm yesternight. May Allah grant him Aljanna firdausi. Amin. That is the ephemerality and transience of life,” Sani tweeted.
Earlier on Tuesday, Barkindo was at the State House in Abuja where he met President Muhammadu Buhari who described him as a worthy ambassador of the country.
Receiving Barkindo, Buhari said posterity will remember him kindly for making the nation and himself proud during his six years of meritorious service at the helm of affairs as the fourth OPEC secretary general from Nigeria.
Buhari directed the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC to mobilise the oil and gas industry to organise a befitting welcome reception in honour of Barkindo.
