A senior lecturer at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID), Borno State, Dr. Abba Kuru, was abducted on Saturday night by unknown gunmen in Maiduguri, eyewitnesses and security sources have confirmed.

The News agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Kuru, an Associated Professor in the Department of Geography, and Coordinator of General Studies (GNS), was, according to eyewitnesses, kidnapped by a gang of armed young men around the federal low-cost estate barely 24 hours after a deadly encounter with Joint Task Force (JTF) and suspected terrorists erupted in the area which left scores dead on both sides.

The incident came barely 12 hours after some suspected group of terrorists that agreed to a ceasefire for peace to reign through its Commander in-charge of Borno North and South, Shiekh Abdulazeez Idris, denied any involvement of kidnapping in the country.

A top security official of the university's security department confirmed the incident to journalists in Maiduguri on phone.

"Dr Kuru's abduction was reported to us shortly after it occurred yesterday (Saturday) evening. We are seriously working to locate his where about; we believe his kidnappers may not have exited the Maiduguri metropolis yet,' the source who doesn't want to be named in this report said.

Meanwhile, NAN has reported that his colleagues in the university have began to express fears for their safety now that they have become one of the targets of kidnappers.

The spokesman of the university, Ahmed Muhammed, told journalists that he could not make detail comment on the incident until he got details of the incident.