Following reports of incessant and gruesome killing of Nigerians in Northern Cyprus, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) warned Nigerians against sending their children to universities in Northern Cyprus.
The Chairman/CEO of NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, issued the warning when the commission’s office in Abuja was visited by a delegation led by Justice Amina Bello.
Justice Bello is the mother of Ibrahim Khaleel, a Nigerian engineering student who was allegedly murdered recently in Northern Cyprus.
Dabiri-Erewa disclosed that it was too risky to send children to universities in Northern Cyprus owing to the fact that hundreds of Nigerian students had been mysteriously killed there without any meaningful investigations.
According to Dabiri-Erewa, Khaleel’s death would bring a tipping point to a stop in the incessant killing of Nigerian students in Northern Cyprus.
She said: “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.
“It is not only Ibrahim. Kennedy Dede, 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.”
