The Nigerian
government has said that the request by the Turkish government for the
closure of 17 schools and hospitals owned by some Turkish businessmen in
Nigeria would be handled diplomatically.
It stated that the government would evaluate the request and handle it accordingly.
Khadija Ibrahim, Nigeria’s minister of
state for Foreign Affairs, said this on Friday, July 29, 2016, in Abuja
while responding to questions from journalists shortly after signing a
Memorandum of Understanding with the Swiss Ambassador to Nigeria, Eric
Mayoraz, on the planned repatriation of $321 million looted by late Gen.
Sani Abacha.
Ibrahim declined to speak on whether the
government would accede to Turkey’s request, maintaining that it was a
diplomatic issue which she could not comment on.
“It (Turkey’s request) is a diplomatic
issue and it would be handled diplomatically,” she said and refused to
entertain further questions.
Information gathered suggests that the Federal Government might not accede to the request of Turkey.
“Government cannot just close the
schools. We are evaluating their request, but they may approach a court
for an order to close the schools and hospitals,” a top government
source told Punch.
The Ambassador of Turkey to Nigeria, Mr.
Hakan Cakil, had alleged that the schools and hospitals were allegedly
owned by the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation allegedly founded by
Fethullag Gulen, a Turkish citizen living in United States.
According to the ambassador, confessions
by the coup plotters, who are currently under investigation, indicated
that the same syndicate which hatched the botched July 15, 2016 coup,
owned the schools in Nigeria.
The envoy stated that his country did
not own any school in Nigeria, adding that similar schools established
in Turkey had been shut down.
But the Managing Director, Nigerian
Turkish International Colleges, Orhan Kertim, described Cakil’s
allegations as baseless, unfounded and in poor taste.
Kertim in a statement on Friday in
Abuja, said Nigeria is a sovereign state “and the call by the Turkish
ambassador is not only an affront to the sovereignty of Nigerian nation,
but a display of crass ignorance.”
He said, “The NTIC is a privately funded
institution owned by a group of Turkish investors and as a responsible
organisation operating in Nigeria since 1998, we are conversant with the
laws of the land and we have, to the best of our ability, abided by
these stipulations. The general public is urged to ignore and disregard
the statement by the Turkish ambassador.”
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