Nigerian And Turkish Government To Meet Today Over Detained Nigerian Students In Turkey

Last week, the media was awash with reports of over 50 Nigerians students illegally detained in Turkey and awaiting deportation over alleged involvement in July failed coup that happened in Turkey. The news brought about so many uncertainties and most people predicted a massive clash between Nigeria and Turkey.

But, contrary to those predictions, the Nigerian and Turkish governments are
billed to meet and discuss over the arrested students according to report from Daily Trust.

The students were arrested and their passports confiscated by the Turkish security agents upon arrival at the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul. One of them, Rukkaya Usman, a final year student of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Melikseh, who was deported from the country last week, told TheCable that the Turkish government did not give reason for her deportation.

“As I got to the airport, at the immigration; they (immigration officers) collected my passport and resident permit. They started to ask me questions like: ‘what are you studying?’ ‘What’s your father’s name?’ They took my passport. This was on September 26. I asked what was happening. But they said they didn’t know, that it was a new law, that they were sending me back to my country,” she said.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sola Enikanolaiye, in a telephone chat with our correspondent yesterday, said Nigerian mission officials in Turkey were expected to have a meeting with the country’s Foreign Ministry officials today over the arrest.

He said the government would summon the Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil, to demand explanation for the deportation of the students.
“I have actually asked our official in Ankara to give me an update. He is going to see the foreign ministry officials tomorrow (today) after which he will give me the report,” Enikanolaiye told Daily Trust.

Majority of the detained Nigerians are students of the Fathi University. The school is among the 2,099 schools, dormitories and universities shut down for links with Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric whom Turkish government accused of masterminding the botched July 15 coup in the country.