The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has issued a dire warning to Nigerian students and their parents against attending universities in Northern Cyprus due to the mysterious killing of Nigerian students in the country.
The warning was issued on Monday by the Chairman of NIDCOM Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa who sounded an alarm that more than 100 Nigerian students have been killed in Universities across Northern Cyprus under mysterious circumstances. She also accused security agencies in the country of refusing to carry out proper investigations into the deaths of Nigerian Nationals in Northern Cyprus.
Mrs. Dabiri-Erewa received the family of Justice Amina Bello whose Son Ibrahim Khaleel was killed in Northern Cyprus in her office on Monday, when she issued the warning. She also read out 15 out of more than 100 names of murdered Nigerian students, saying the killing of Justice Bello’s son had brought the situation to a tipping point.
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She lamented that employing the instrument of international diplomacy in addressing the situation has proved abortive, because Northern Cyprus is only recognised by Turkey.
“The death of Ibrahim Khaleel should be the tipping point to a stop in the killing of our children anywhere in the world, particularly Northern Cyprus,” the NIDCOM boss said.
“It is not only Ibrahim. Kennedy Dede, 28; Augustine Ngok, Gabriel Sorewei, Osabanjo Owoyale, Augustine Wallace, Stanley Eteno, Hassan Babatunde, Temitayo Adigun, and Kubat Abraham are just a few of the ones that we even know.
“The problem is that most Nigerian parents do not know that Northern Cyprus is not recognised by any country in the world. It is not a UN-recognised country. It is only recognised by Turkey. That is why we have not been able to do much.
“Who do you report to? Thousands of Nigerian students are schooling there and I tell you that hundreds have been killed. Who do you take these cases to?
“And they are killed in similar circumstances. The school just tells you, ‘Well, they committed suicide,’ and nothing happens. We are going to list all these names of Nigerians that have been killed and we demand justice. There has been no prosecution and no compensation.
“No Nigerian parent should send their children to any university in Northern Cyprus – there is a collaboration which we do not understand that makes them kill blacks, particularly our Nigerian students.”
Abike Dabiri assured the delegation that she would work to get Justice for every murdered Nigerian student through the Attorney General of the Federation and the INTERPOL.
She noted that one of the schools where a Nigerian student, Sowerei was murdered refused to investigate the murder and has come back to Nigeria to lure more Nigerian students with scholarship offers.
She insisted that many Nigerian Universities were better than the schools in Northern Cyprus and many of the programmes being offered remained unaccredited. She promised to work with the Nigerian Universities Commission to blacklist certificates from the country’s Universities.
“Yes our universities have challenges. There are strikes and you don’t (always) know when you are going to finish but there are some of these universities that you will regret you even went to, including some in Africa.
“It is better to go to a private university here than to go to some of these places that we go to in the name of ‘our children are in Europe. We have written the NUC. The key thing is to blacklist Northern Cyprus and to stop our children from going to that country to study.”
“We will be working with the NUC to list all the universities in Northern Cyprus and blacklist them. We cannot be letting them kill our children.”