A 28-year-old Nigerian student, Abdulsamad Abubakar, has been reported missing in Northern Cyprus.
Abubakar’s emotionally disturbed mother, Mrs Dije Ibraheem, last Friday cried out to the management of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, to intervene by locating her only child.
His disappearance comes barely 24 hours after NIDCOM issued repeated advisories to Nigerians against seeking educational succour in Northern Cyprus.
Northern Cyprus has been notorious for the worst kind of racism targeting students of mostly African origin, where many Nigerian students have been gruesomely murdered.
Speaking further on the disappearance of her son, Ibraheem, who hails from Kogi State, said she last spoke with her son on August 2, through another person’s phone number, where her son raised an alarm that ” they have come to pick me up to a detention camp.”
NIDCOM, in a statement by its Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, described Ibrahim Said Abdulsamad as a 300-Level International Relations student of Cyprus Science University, CSU, who was living off campus.
According to his 54-year-old mother, since that call on August 2, 2022 from an unknown number, with her son wailing and asking for help, she has not known his whereabouts or heard any news from him or the school authorities.
Confused on what to do, she reached out to the agent who secured the admission and travelling documents for her son but he was not forthcoming too
“I was advised to write a petition to Consular and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which I did before someone hinted me that Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerians to be wary of Northern Cyprus, hence reaching out to her to help me out.
“So am here today at NIDCOM to beg you in the name of God to help me bring back my son alive, as am scared of hearing any bad news about my only child. Please help me, I am a single mother. He is my only child. I haven’t slept well nor fed well since August 2nd that I last spoke with him,” she said.
Receiving the petition on behalf of Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Secretary of the Commission, Engr. Dr Sule Yakubu Bassi, assured Ms Ibraheem that everything possible will be done to help locate her son and bring him back to the country, but reminding her that diplomatic services are difficult because Nigeria and the UN have no diplomatic relations with Northern Cyprus
“Here at NIDCOM, we are concerned about the welfare of Nigerians abroad as well as encouraging them to invest back home for national development,” he said.
Bassi, who pleaded with Ms Ibraheem to take care of her health, reassured her that further investigation will be carried out by the Commission in conjunction with the Nigeria Embassy in Ankara, Turkey
He reiterated the earlier advisory given by the commission in sending students to Northern Cyprus due to the negative reports received from there especially from the students.
The Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Nigeria, Hidayet Bayraktar, had described the advisory by the commission as exaggerated before the commission gave out list of Nigerians murdered in Northern Cyprus within three years.
