Barely 24 hours after an advisory offered by the management of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission against seeking education in Northern Cyprus, another Nigerian student, Abdulsamad Abubakar, has been reported missing in the country.
Abdulsamad is a 300-Level International Relations student of Cyprus Science University. He was until his reported disappearance living off-campus.
A statement by the Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, on Saturday indicated that his mother, Dije Ibraheem, cried to the commission for intervention in locating her only child.
Balogun said Ibraheem last spoke with her 28-year-old son on the phone on August 2, when he pleaded with her mother to come for him.
It partly read, “According to the 54-year-old trader, who hails from Kogi State, she last spoke with her son on August 2, through another person’s phone number, when the son raised an alarm that they had come to pick me up to a detention camp”
She said since that call from an unknown number, with her son wailing and asking for help, she had not known his whereabouts or heard any news from him or the school authorities.
Confused about what to do, she reached out to the agent who secured the admission and travelling documents for her son but he was not forthcoming too.
“She said she was advised to write a petition to the Consular and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by a friend, which she did before someone told her that Abike Dabiri-Erewa had earlier advised Nigerians to be wary of Northern Cyprus, hence reaching out to Dabiri-Erewa for help”,
Receiving the petition on behalf of Dabiri-Erewa, the Secretary of the Commission, Dr Sule Bassi, assured Ibraheem that everything possible would be done to help locate her son and bring him back to the country.
She reminded her that diplomatic services might be difficult because Nigeria and the UN had no diplomatic relations with Northern Cyprus.
Bassi, who pleaded with Ibraheem to take care of her health, reassured her that further investigation would be carried out by the Commission in collaboration with the Nigeria Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
He reiterated the earlier advisory given by the Commission concerning sending students to Northern Cyprus, due to the negative reports received, especially from the students.
