Only 24 hours after the management of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission issued a warning against studying in Northern Cyprus, another Nigerian student, Abdulsamad Abubakar, went missing in the country.
Abdulsamad is a Cyprus Science University 300-Level International Relations student. He was living off-campus until his reported disappearance.
According to a statement issued on Saturday by the Head of Media, Public Relations, and Protocols Unit Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, his mother, Dije Ibraheem, pleaded with the commission for help in locating her only child.
Ibraheem, Balogun’s 28-year-old son, last spoke with her on the phone on August 2, when he begged her mother to come get him.
“According to the 54-year-old trader 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,” it said in part.
She stated that she had not known her son’s whereabouts or heard any news from him or the school authorities since that call from an unknown number with her son wailing and pleading for help.
Confused about what to do, she contacted the agent who had secured her son’s admission and travel documents, but he was also unavailable.
“She said she was advised by a friend to write a petition to the Consular and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which she did before learning that Abike Dabiri-Erewa had previously advised Nigerians to be wary of Northern Cyprus, prompting her to seek assistance from Dabiri-Erewa.”
Dr Sule Bassi, the Secretary of the Commission, who received the petition on behalf of Dabiri-Erewa, assured Ibraheem that everything possible would be done to help locate her son and bring him back to the country.
She reminded her that because Nigeria and the UN had no diplomatic relations with Northern Cyprus, diplomatic services might be difficult.
Bassi, who pleaded with Ibraheem to look after her health, reassured her that the Commission would conduct further investigation in collaboration with the Nigeria Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.
He reiterated the Commission’s earlier warning about sending students to Northern Cyprus, citing negative feedback, particularly from students.