Turkish Govt ask FG to close down all Turkish schools in Nigeria

The Turkish government has appealed to the Federal government to close down the 17
Nigerian-Turkish International Colleges (NTIC) in Nigeria, saying they all belong to
Fetullah Gulen accused of sponsoring the July 15th failed military coup in Turkey.
The Turkish High Commissioner to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil, disclosed this while hosting the
vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Shehu Sani
yesterday July 28th.
“We have formally and verbally made our demand to the Nigerian government
through the Foreign Affairs Minister. My country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has
spoken to Mr. Geoffrey Onyema on this. We are requesting for the close down
of all the 17 schools. All the schools in Nigeria belong to the Gulen movement
and not the Turkish government. They are using the schools to recruit followers
for terrorism. This is threatening the peace in our country as they are using funds
they are generating in Nigeria for terrorism. Gulen is a terrorist organization using
rhetoric of dialogue, peace and partnership to deceive people. It is being
presented as a kind of Muslim missionary but they are abusing the religion. They
misled the public by putting Turkey in the name of their school. We don’t have
schools in Nigeria, we have in other countries but not in Nigeria. Gulen
movement staged a coup and they failed. Investigations prior to the coup
attempt had revealed that the followers of the Gulen group infiltrated into various
state structures including the police, army and judiciary.”he said Reacting to the
allegations, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Turkish International Colleges,
Cemal Yigit in a telephone chat with DailyTrust, denied the claims made by the
ambassador and said it was a deliberate attempt by the Turkish government to
smear the image of the colleges “I am not aware of the information but it is
possible since that is how they do the defamation campaign. It is so unfortunate
that the smear attack is even reaching Nigeria. Nigeria is a sovereign country and
it is as if the Turkish Ambassador has the luxury of giving Nigerian authorities
instructions on the place which employed about 2,000 Nigerians. Let me say that
the NTIC, Nizamiye Hospital, Nigeria Turkish Nile University under the First Surat
Group of Companies are privately invested here by private investors. These
groups of companies have nothing to do with the Turkish government and they
are non-governmental and non-political companies. Their responsibility is to the
Nigerian authorities. The schools and hospitals are open; there is no way they
could be closed. This is just misinformation disseminated by the Turkish
Ambassador to Nigeria.”