House Committee warns Nigerians against Cyprus International University

The House Committee on Diaspora has warned Nigerians on the dangers of sending students to Cyprus International University, Nicosia, North Cyprus, as one Gabriel Soriwei recently died as a student in the University under mysterious circumstances.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa

The House Committee Chairman on Diaspora, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa who made this known in a statement Wednesday, January 15, 2014 also said the recent move by the authorities of the University to lure Nigerian students despite the way Gabriel was treated is suspicious.
According to the statement, Gabriel Soriwe, 20 years old, was a student of Electrical and Electronics at the University when he was killed. The institution alleged that he was knocked down by a female drunk driver in July 17, 2013 but connived with the North Cyprus Police to release and shield the identity of the driver from the family. His corpse was callously sent as an unaccompanied cargo to the grieving family without any belongings.

This is apart from Bayelsa born musician, Stanley Ateino who was murdered on August 12, 2013 because of a disagreement with a white student over a girl in Nicosia.
According to Dabiri-Erewa, from all indications, studying in this particular University is not safe in and Nicosia North Cyprus in general is dangerous for our students. ”
The team from the Cyprus International University held a seminar at Rockview Hotel yesterday, January 14, 2014 to convince prospective Nigerian students and are currently heading to Kaduna, PortHarcourt and Uyo.
The statement disclosed that they left out Benin and Bayelsa because Soriwe is from Benin and Stanley is from Bayelsa State. North Cyprus is not recognized by Nigeria and all other countries in the world except Turkey.

Meanwhile Nigerian Times reported earlier that the Director, International Office of the University, Patrick Douse has apologised to the family of the deceased for the way the university handled the incident, noting that the institution had put in place measures to prevent a re-occurrence of such mishap in the future.

The director was making a presentation for prospective students in Abuja on Tuesday when Mr Fidelis Soriwei a member of the family of the deceased, tabled his family's grievance, particularly the refusal of the university to bring Gabriel's killer to justice.
According to Douse, “the CIU director said the political situation in the country was being resolved, adding that there were about 700 Nigerian students at CIU whom he said are doing well.
"In every city in the world, people have accidents, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the family is grieving. On behalf of the CIU, I apologise for the incident. We have put in place measures to ensure that we respond appropriately to incidents affecting our students in future." 

BY NATS ODAUDU  CORRESPONDENT AT NIGERIAN TIMES