Following the severe earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria on Monday and has reportedly claimed over 5,000 lives, the President of the Nigerian Community in Turkey, Embre Magboh, has said that most Nigerians are not residents of the earthquake areas.
On Tuesday morning, Turkey’s vice president, Fuat Oktay, said 3,419 people had been killed in the quake, with another 20,534 injured. The number of confirmed deaths on the Syrian side of the border rose to 1,602, bringing the death toll in both countries to 5,021.
Turkey’s disaster management agency said it had 11,342 reports of collapsed buildings, of which 5,775 had been confirmed.
The World Health Organisation also warned that casualties could exceed 20,000 as the scale of devastation from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake continued to unfold.
He also noted that the community had yet to get details of any Nigerian’s death so far in the earthquake.
Magboh told The PUNCH that the areas experiencing the earthquake were not areas where Nigerians are usually domiciled.
He, however, added that they were currently living in fear as the earthquake could spread across to other parts of the country.
Magboh said, “Nigerians rarely live in those areas where the earthquake has currently hit. When someone moves to Nigeria, they are likely to live in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, or at most Kano. They are likely not going to go to those interior states.
“Those areas experiencing earthquakes are usually for the natives. Nigerians, even Africans generally are more domiciled in Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, and Northern Cyprus.”
The PUNCH had earlier reported that some Nigerians living in Turkey shared their close shave experiences with the earthquake.
Magboh, however, stated that “ Some of the people caught up had likely gone there for some specific reasons or visited a friend but it is rare for Africans to live in places like Diyarbakir, South East Turkey.
” However, we are afraid because of the possibility that the earthquake could spread to other parts of the country.”
Speaking on the Nigerian population, Magboh noted that over 15,000 Nigerians were residents of Turkey.
He noted that information was still sketchy in terms of casualty recorded at the moment but will be able to give a more concise report before the end of the day.
He added, “Information is still sketchy because none of our members has called us yet or reported any case of a missing person but we will find out more about the situation of things and get back to you before the day ends.”
Earlier, a Dutch researcher, Frank Hoogerbeets, had last Friday predicted an earthquake would occur in Turkey and Syria.
He tweeted, “Sooner or later, there will be a ~M 7.5 #earthquake in this region (South-Central Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon.”
