The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora has drawn the attention of Nigerians to a suspicious move by the authorities of Cyprus International University, Nicosia, North Cyprus, to lure Nigerian students to their university.
The Committee warned on the dangers of sending Nigerian students to CIU,Nicosia, North Cyprus, as one Gabriel Soriwei recently died as a student in the university under mysterious circumstances.
The 20 year old Soriwei was a first year student of Electrical/Electronic Engineering at the Cyprus International University, Nicosia, North Cyprus.
In a statement signed by the committee chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, it stated that the university alleged that he was knocked down by by a female drunk driver in July 17,2013 but the university authorities in connivance with the North Cyprus police, released the driver and shielded her identity from the family.
“Till date, there has not been a word of condolence to the family. His corpse was sent as an unaccompanied cargo to the grieving family, without any of his belongings.”
The Soriwei family has since buried their son and has not been reached by authorities of CIU four months after, and have expressed pain at the callousness of the university authorities.
The committee also notes that apart from Soriwei, a Bayelsa-born musician, Stanley Oteimo, was also murdered on August 12,2013 because of a disagreement he had with a white students over a girl in Nicosia.
“The team from CIU held a seminar at Rockview hotel, Abuja on January 14,2014, to lure Nigerian students to their university and they are currently heading to Kaduna, Port harcourt, and Uyo. They left out Benin and Bayelsa because the late Soriwei was from Benin and Stanley was from Bayelsa State,” the statement added.
It said that from all indications, “studying in this university, CIU, is not safe in particular and and Nicosia, North Cyprus in general, is also dangerous for our students.”
The House Committee also notes that North Cyprus is not recognised by Nigeria and all other countries in the world except Turkey.