Grief: NNPC announces death of ex-GMD, Baru, at 60

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, announced his death on Saturday morning in a tweet.

“My brother, my friend and my mentor, Dr Maikanti Kachalla Baru, immediate past GMD of NNPC died late last night. He was of exemplary character and disposition. May Allah forgive him and have mercy upon him,” he said on his Twitter handle.

Baru was born in 1959 and led a career in engineering, rising through the ranks at the NNPC before he was eventually appointed to lead the organisation by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2016.

Buhari replaced Baru with Kyari in July 2015. The NNPC had in a official statement by its spokesperson, Dr Kennie Obateru, expressed regrets over the sudden death of its former helmsman, describing him as “a consummate mechanical engineer.

Baru was an oil marketer and the 18th Group Managing Director of the Nigeria’s state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from July 2016 to July 2019, when he retired after attaining the statutory retirement age of 60 on July 8, 2019.

Before joining the NNPC, Mr Baru worked at the Jos Steel Rolling Company Limited between 1988 and 1991, where he occupied various positions, including the Head, Corporate Planning and Electrical Department.