REPS GIVE TURKEY AUTHORITY 7DAYS ULTIMATUM TO RELEASE 50
DETAINED NIGERIAN STUDENTS
ABUJA-THE House of Representatives yesterday gave the Government
of Turkey 7days ultimatum to release 50 Nigerian students detained over alleged
terrorist acts.
The house also urged the federal government to explore all
diplomatic options to secure the release of the students arrested in Turkey.
Towards this direction, the House in plenary mandated its committees on
Diaspora, Education, Foreign Affairs and Interior to investigate the
circumstances surrounding their arrest and take necessary actions to check the
ugly trend.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivers a speech during a
mukhtars meeting at the presidential palace on November 26, 2015 in Ankara.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on November 26 said Turkey does not buy any oil
from Islamic State, insisting that his country’s fight against the jihadist group
is “undisputed”.
AFP PHOTO The call was sequel to a motion under matters of
national importance promoted by Rep Solomon Maren who drew the attention of his
colleagues to untold hardship, extortion, torture and death which Nigerian
students go through as they seek for education abroad.
Maren noted that since the failed Turkey coup of July 15th,
there has been a clamp down on 2099 schools in Turkey, over their alleged
involvement in the botched coup.
The Turkish government had also come had on
Institutions associated Islamic Schilar Fetullar Gulen linked with the coup,
and had also called on the federal government to shot down 17 Turkish schools
in Nigeria for alleged links with the Hizmet movement that also masterminded
the coup.
He went memory lane, recalling how a Nigerian student was murdered in
Dubai, another Julie bedridden in Italy out of torture and maltreatment and
another student killed in Malaysia because his travel documents could not be
updated on time. Supporting the motion, Rep Nnanna Igbokwe (PDP Imo) called for
the consolidation of the bill with a previous bill which called for an
investigation of the involvement of Turkish schools in Nigeria in the coup,
adding that Turkey came hard on Nigerian students because the country failed to
close down Turkish Institutions in Nigeria as was recommended by the Turkish
government.
Igbokwe further disclosed that according to the Ministry of
Education, Turkish International is a privately owned, just as he queried
Corporate Affairs Commission CAC, for allowing a private entity register an
International entity. In his contribution, Rep. Jagaba Adams Jagaba (PDP,
Kaduna), said the House should weigh in on the crisis with caution.
Jagaba
suggested that it would be counterproductive for the lawmakers to pre-empt the
actions of the executive which has the traditional duty of diplomatic relations
with foreign nations. Also contributing to the motion,Rep Rotimi Agunsoye
(APC, Lagos) said Nigeria should openly reprimand Turkey for its actions and
demand formal apology as the motion was unanimously passed on voice vote
following a question by presiding Speaker, Yakubu Dogara. It was equally
discovered that out of 120 countries that have students in Turkey, only
Nigerian students were subjected to this humiliation.
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