Turkey ‘arrests’ 50 Nigerian students over failed coup

Fifty Nigerian students are currently being detained in Turkey on the alleged orders of the government.

According to THISDAY, a relative of one of the detained students, said the passports of those affected were confiscated.

“Upon arrival at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, they were all escorted to a room and their passport confiscated by Turkish police,” the relative was quoted as saying.

“When they enquired why they were clamped in a dirty room, the police said they are students of a terrorist organisation. They offered to transfer them to government schools but on the condition that we will pay same fees as private universities.”

Most of the detained Nigerians are said to be students of Fatih University, one of the private institutions in Turkey.

The Fathi University is among the 2099 schools, dormitories and universities shut down in the wake of the July 15 failed coup in the country.

Abike Dabiri, senior special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and diaspora, said she was not aware of  the development.

“Just hearing from you, if we do get the report, we will react,” she said in response to inquiries by TheCable.

Two weeks after the botched coup, Hakan Cakil, Turkish ambassador to Nigeria, called on the federal government to close 17 Turkish schools in Nigeria.

He alleged that the schools had links with a movement involved in the coup attempt.

According to him, investigations by the Turkish government have linked the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO) to the failed coup attempt, which claimed over 300 lives.

He said the Turkish government was dissociating itself from any school bearing the country’s name in Nigeria, adding that while the country had schools in other countries, it had none in Nigeria.

He later disclosed that some Nigerians studying in private Turkish universities had been transferred to public schools owing to the closure of their institutions.

Cakil said the students would pay little or no tuition in their new place of study.