Family of Nigerian student killed in occupied Cyprus seeks FG intervention

 Family members of a Nigerian student, Gabriel Soriwei, killed in Nicosia, Cyprus by a female driver have cried out to the Federal Government and the security agencies for intervention.

A statement by the family said the 20-year-old Soriwei, a first year student of Electrical/Electronic Engineering at the International University, Nicosia was knocked down by a female driver on July 13, 2013.

Thereafter, he went into a coma for close to two months before he eventually died on September 7, 2013. On September 12, the authorities of the university flew his remains via Turkish Airlines as “cargo” to his family back in Nigeria.

Father of the deceased student, Mr. Patrick Soriwei was forced to travel to Cyprus for further enquiries on the death of his son where the Cyprus police told him that the woman driver lost control of the car, knocking Gabriel down in the process.

The Soriwei family is miffed by the fact that neither the authorities at the Cyprus International University nor the family of the woman driver had deemed it necessary to send a condolence message to the family.

The family said it’s more painful because the authorities of the university and the country’s police were hiding the identity of the woman from them.

The police in that country were said to have insisted that the practice in their country does not allow them to reveal the identity of such killer drivers to families and relations their victims.

The statement by the family stated: “While the family has accepted the reality of the painful loss of our child, his death has raised some issues about the value placed on the life of the Nigerian outside the shores of this country.

” It was reliably gathered that the woman was drunk even though we have no proof of it.  The police said that the woman was detained for three days and released.

“Painfully, our investigations revealed that the university, which was said to be pursuing the case and which is host to about 700 Nigerian students, has shown lack of interest in the case.

“Also, several entreaties made by the family to the school authorities to send the belongings of the late Gabriel to Nigeria have been ignored.

“We have informed the Nigerian Embassy in Cyprus and the mission there does not seem to see this demand to defend the rights of Nigerians in a foreign country as a priority.

“The best the Nigerian Mission in Ankara has done was to send one Uche to the university to find out the cause of the death. The Mission has not rendered the necessary assistance in getting the police to write a report on his death. This delay in writing this report, we believe, is inspired by a plot to subvert the process of justice in this matter.

“Consequently, we have written to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the leadership of the National Assembly, with copies of the letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Turkish Embassy in Nigeria, and others.

“While the Soriwei family intends to pursue this matter to the best of our abilities, we urge the Federal Government and all Nigerians of good conscience to come to our aid in the search for justice over the killing of this innocent Nigerian child.

“The life of a Nigerian child should be treated more decently than that of a stray animal. The situation doesn’t seem to be different in this case.”

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