The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, has commiserated with the family of Mr Francis Johnson the late President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

Johnson, a former staff member of NNPC, died in the wee hours of Friday May 31, after a brief illness.

Baru in a statement signed by the corporation’s spokesman, Mr Ndu Ughamadu in Abuja, on Thursday described Johnson, as an exemplary officer, diligent, humble and respectful.

He added that he was equally a team player of record.

“Johnson was a gold standard of a productive and resourceful employee who at all times was a pride of an employer.

“The NNPC family will, for a long time to come, surely miss his fecundity,” he said

Baru further said that the death of the comrade came as a rude shock to him and the entire industry.

“It is regrettable that the Corporation, and indeed the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, lost him at this critical point in the transformation of the Sector.

“Although Comrade Johnson died at a highly productive age, a painful occurrence no doubt, yet, the milestones he achieved almost assuage our grief and sense of unquantifiable loss.

This enables us to consider his transition as a celebration of a life well-spent in the service of God and humanity,” he noted.

He prayed the Almighty to give succour to Mrs Johnson, the immediate family of the deceased, PENGASSAN and all the grieving ones over his demise.