TheCable

A group of Turkish citizens on Thursday held a solidarity march for President Recep Erdogan.

The group, which converged on Old Parade ground in Abuja, sang solidarity songs as they made their way to the Turkish embassy.

Hakan Cakil, the Turkish ambassador, received the group and thanked them for the gesture.

The march followed the refusal of the Nigerian government to close down the Nigerian-Turkish International Colleges (NTIC), which are schools affiliated to the Hizmet movement whose leader, Fethullah Gulen, is accused of masterminding the July 15 coup in Turkey.

The Turkish government had asked the Nigerian government to shut down the schools and other investments of members of the movement in Nigeria on the grounds that they financed crime.

But the Nigerian government declined the request, owing to a lack of evidence and proof of the allegation by the Turkish government.

Speaking with TheCable in reaction to the protest, an official of the Turkish schools in Nigeria who does not want his name to be mentioned, said that the NTIC is not a political organisation, and that it should be left out of politics.

He said that the schools had contributed to the development of education in Nigeria, and that it would want to be left alone to concentrate on the task of developing the education sector.