The House of Representatives has mandated four of its committees to carry out a thorough investigation into the recent arrest of 50 Nigerian students by the Turkish authorities in Istanbul.
The committees are on tertiary education, interior, foreign affairs and Diaspora. The committees are to also look into the disagreement between the Nigerian and the Turkish governments whose representatives were expected to meet yesterday in Abuja over the arrest.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion by Rep Solomon Bulus Maren (PDP, Plateau), after which the House also urged the federal government to explore all diplomatic means of rescuing the students and resolving the matter.
Maren said the students were being held in a dark room and were sleeping on bare floors, while others were sick already without any form of medication due to the condition in which they are illegally detained.
The detained students, he said, were forced into signing documents for deportation, pay penalties on the allegation of illegal entry into Turkey, humiliated and abused.
More disturbing, he added, was the fact that out of the 102 countries that have students in Turkey, only Nigerian students were treated in such manner, whereas other countries have sorted out theirs diplomatically.
In his contribution, the chairman of the committee on tertiary education, Rep Mainu Suleiman (APC, Kano) described the treatment as “crude and merciless and a vendetta against Nigerians.”
The House has called on the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to dismantle all unauthorized speed bumps erected on federal highways nationwide.
Adopting a motion by Rep Abdulrazak Namdas (APC, Adamawa), the House urged the ministry to construct pedestrian bridges on dangerous spots to check deaths.
Source: Daily Trust
