Abdulsamad Abubakar, a 28-year-old Nigerian studying at the Cyprus Science University (CSU), has been reported missing.

This was made public in a statement by the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) on Friday.

NIDCOM said the student went missing barely 24 hours after it advised against seeking educational succour in Northern Cyprus.

FIJ had reported that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Turkish Human Rights Platform raised concerns on new human trafficking syndicates operating between Nigeria and Northern Cyprus.

This was made known in a statement released by Stella Nezan, NAPTIP’s head of press and public relations unit.

Dije Ibraheem, the emotionally disturbed mother of Abubakar, cried to NIDCOM on Friday, pleading for the commission’s intervention in locating her only child.

READ ALSO: Traffickers Using Student Visa to Lure Nigerians to Northern Cyprus, NAPTIP Reveals

The 54-year-old trader from Kogi State said that when she spoke with her son on August 2, he said some people were coming to pick him up and take him to a detention camp.

Ibrahim claimed that her son was living off campus, and that she hadn’t heard from him or the school administration since she received a distressing phone call from an unknown number on August 2, 2022, her son sobbing and pleading for help.

Since she was unsure of what to do, she contacted the agent that arranged her son’s acceptance and travel paperwork but was unable to get a response.

“I was advised to write a petition to the Consular and Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which I did before someone hinted to me that Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa advised Nigerians to be wary of northern Cyprus, hence reaching out to her to help me out,” she said.

“So I am here today at NIDCOM to beg you in the name of God to help me bring back my son alive, as I am scared of hearing any bad news about my only child. Please help me, I am a single mother. He is my only child.

I haven’t slept well or fed well since August 2nd, when I last spoke with him.”

Receiving the woman’s petition on behalf of Dabiri-Erewa, Dr. Sule Yakubu, NIDCOM’s secretary, assured Ibraheem that everything possible would be done to help locate her son and bring him back to the country. He also told her that diplomatic moves were difficult because Nigeria and the UN had no diplomatic relations with Northern Cyprus.

“Here at NIDCOM, we are concerned about the welfare of Nigerians abroad, as well as encouraging them to invest back home for national development,” he said.

Bassi, who pleaded with the student’s mother to take care of her health, said more investigations would be carried out by the commission in conjunction with the Nigeria Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

He reiterated the earlier advisory given by the commission on sending students to Northern Cyprus due to the negative reports received from students there.

Other Nigerian students who have been reported missing and dead in Northern Cyprus are Mr. Ibrahim Khaleel Bello, 28-year-old Kennedy Taomwabwa Dede, Walshak Augustine Ngok and Gabriel Soriwei, a first year student of electrical electronics at Cyprus International University, Nicosia, among many others.