EDUCATION: Onyeama meets Presidency over detained students in Turkey

Top officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and senior Presidency officials held a marathon meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday, where they brainstormed on the best way to secure the release of Nigerian students detained by the Turkish government.

It was learnt that the meeting which was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, the Permanent Secretary, MFA, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye, top directors and
senior Presidency officials, ended around 7pm.

The minister, it was learnt, proposed a diplomatic overtures by President Muhammadu Buhari to his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, as a way of resolving the imbroglio.



Findings indicate that the MFA’s proposal was hinged on the need to avoid a long drawn diplomatic row with Turkey.

Our correspondent gathered that the meeting was not able to find a quick solution to the issue as the participants were weighing the implication of “Buhari pleading with Erdogan to release the students without losing face or appearing weak.”

Apart from securing the release of the detained students, the ministry, it was learnt, also wanted Buhari to get the Turkish authorities to regularise the visas of the affected students whose schools were shut in the aftermath of the failed July 15, 2016 coup in Turkey.

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