100 Nigerian Students Killed In Northern Cyprus Universities - NiDCOM

[Edoman]

Over 100 Nigerian students killed in four years – NiDCOM

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission said on Monday that no fewer than 100 Nigerian students studying in Northern Cyprus have been killed between 2016 and 2020.

The commission lamented that the Nigerian students were killed in mysterious circumstances while their assailants were never prosecuted for the crime.

A statement on Monday by NiDCOM said the 100 victims included 25-year-old Ibrahim Bello, son of Justice Amina Bello of the Kaduna State High Court.

“Other victims include Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede, 28, student of Eastern Mediterranean University killed on February 1, 2018; Walshak Augustine Ngok, a student of Marine Engineering at Near East University, murdered on April 19, 2019,” the statement said.

The statement, signed by NiDCOM media officer, Gabriel Odu, was titled, “Death of Ibrahim Bello: NiDCOM demands justice, urges students to avoid Northern Cyprus universities.”

According to the statement, Justice Bello was at the commission’s office in Abuja to plead with the Federal Government to assist her in bringing the murderers of her son to justice.

Ibrahim, a student at the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, was killed in suspicious circumstances by unknown persons in October last year.

But the authorities claimed the third year Civil Engineering student of Girne American University in Girne (Kyrenia), committed suicide by jumping from a seven-storey building.

Presenting a petition on the alleged murder to the Chairman, NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, in Abuja on Monday, the bereaved mother said her demand for justice was not only for her son but also for other Nigerian students who had died mysteriously in the Girne American University Girne (Kyrenia), and other institutions in Northern Cyprus.

NiDCOM said in its statement that the judge narrated how the 25-year-old was allegedly murdered and the act covered up by the authorities in Northern Cyprus and the university administration which claimed that his death was a suicide, noting that the deceased fell from a seven-storey building.

Justice Bello insisted that the report should be investigated and all those found culpable should be prosecuted “as there was nothing to show that my son committed suicide.”

The judge said hours before her son was killed, she spoke with him and he expressed fear about his safety in the university environment.

She stated, “I don’t believe it was an accident or a suicide as I went to Cyprus barely 24 hours after it happened and got to the mortuary where there was no scratch or wound on his body.

“I suspected foul play that my son was killed as the school was nonchalant in breaking the news to me on my arrival there.”

Justice Bello further disclosed that hours before her son died, he had sent her a WhatsApp message saying, “ Mama, please, I want to come back home. Wallahi, if I stay here, I will just die here without anybody batting an eyelid. I just need to come back home. Mama please, try to understand that this isn’t the place for me.”

Dabiri-Erewa called on parents to be wary of sending their wards to Northern Cyprus “as the country is not recognised by the United Nations except the Republic of Turkey,” adding that Nigeria had no diplomatic ties with that country.

She assured Bello that NiDCOM would work with the Ministry of Justice, the Nigerian Mission in Turkey and other relevant agencies to ensure justice was done.

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[Edoman]

[b]Killings: FG Warns Parents Against Sending Their Children To Cyprus 

Stop sending children to schools in Northern Cyprus, NIDCOM warns parents[/b]

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has warned Nigerian parents against sending their children to universities in Northern Cyprus over the incessant and mysterious killing of Nigerians.

Chairman/CEO of the commission, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, who gave the warning on Monday, said it was too risky to send children to the schools in Northern Cyprus as hundreds of Nigerian students had been killed there mysteriously without any conclusive investigations carried out.

Dabiri-Erewa said this when she received in her office, a delegation led by Justice Amina Bello, mother of a Nigerian student, Ibrahim Khaleel, who was allegedly killed in inexplicable circumstances in that country.

She stressed that the death of Khaleel, a third-year engineering student, had brought to a tipping point the incessant killing of Nigerian students in Northern Cyprus under baffling circumstances.

The NIDCOM boss, who read out 15 names of Nigerians from a list of more than 100 who were killed in Northern Cyprus, said it was difficult to employ international diplomacy in investigation as the country 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.

“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,” she said.

She assured the mother of the deceased student that the commission would work with her to demand justice, not only for her son but also for other Nigerians who have been killed while studying in Northern Cyprus.

She said the case had already been transferred to INTERPOL through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.

The NIDCOM chairman recalled that when she was a serving lawmaker and Sorewei’s killing was on the front burner in Nigeria, the school which seemed unapologetic about the killing had already sent its agents to lure more Nigerians with juicy scholarships.

While acknowledging that Nigerian schools needed improvements, she gave an assurance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s dedication to improving the education sector and insisted that many Nigerian schools were better than some of the acclaimed foreign universities in spite of the odds.

She said that there were already reports that many of the courses being offered by the “shoddy” universities in Northern Cyprus were not accredited, pledging that NIDCOM would work with the Nigerian Universities Commission for a possible blacklist of certificates from the country.

“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.

She said that NIDCOM had met with the Ambassador of Turkey to Nigeria, who being new, said he was unaware of the killing but promised to look into the matter.

She added there were plans by NIDCOM to visit Northern Cyprus after the COVID-19 Pandemic to see thing as clearly as they were.

She admonished Nigerians schooling abroad to make it a point of duty to always report to the Nigerian mission in that country upon arrival.

Speaking earlier, the mother of the late student said that she was yet to come to terms with the death of her son whom was reported to have committed suicide but circumstances showed otherwise.

She said that autopsy reports and investigations which she had requested in the past seven months were yet to come, adding that the school authorities were being evasive.

She said that while she was told by authorities that her son jumped from the 7th floor of a building, there was no visible injury on his body or head to suggest that.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/punchng.com/stop-sending-children-to-schools-in-northern-cyprus-nidcom-warns-parents/%3famp=1