Nigerian Student Killed In Cyprus..

The Director, International Office, Cyprus International University,Patrick Douse,has apologised 

to the family of a Nigerian student, Gabriel Soriwei, who was killed in the North Cyprus city of

 Nicosia.

Gabriel, 20, a first year student of Electrical/Electronic Engineering at the university located 

in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, was knocked down by a female driver on July 13, 2013.

As a result of the impact of the accident,he fell into a coma and eventually died on 

September 7, 2013. The university authorities flew his remains via Turkish Airline to Nigeria five 

days later.

Douse said he was sorry for the way the university handled the incident, noting that the institution

 had put in place measures to prevent a recurrence of such incident.

The CIU director was making a presentation for prospective students in Abuja on Tuesday 

when a member of the Soriwei family,Fidelis,tabled his family’s grievance, particularly the 

refusal of the Cypriot authorities to bring Gabriel’s killer to justice.

Fidelis complained that the CIU authorities did not send a condolence letter to the family or 

reach out to them over the sudden demise of their son who was a student in their school.

He said, “The Soriwei family is very aggrieved over the sudden death of our son and the 

nonchalant attitude of the Cyprus International University authorities who did not deem it fit to

 even send us a letter of condolence. The police in Cyprus have refused to disclose the identity

 of the woman that killed our son and even the dollars in his account was withdrawn with his ATM

 card that was in police custody; this shows how corrupt the police in Cyprus are.”

Fidelis also pointed out the tense and unstable political situation in Cyprus, saying his

 investigation indicated that it was only the Republic of Turkey that recognised Cyprus as a 

sovereign nation.

But Douse, who listened patiently, said that the political situation in the country was being 

resolved, adding that there were about 700 Nigerian students at CIU whom he said were doing

 well.

He said, “In every city in the world, people have accidents, but that doesn’t change the fact

 that the family is grieving. On behalf of the CIU, I apologise for the incident. We have put in 

place measures to ensure that we respond appropriately to incidents affecting our students in

 future.”

Douse explained that the identity of the driver of the car that killed Gabriel was being withheld

 by the police because investigations had yet to be concluded.

The Soriwei family had earlier petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan, the National Assembly

 and the National Human Rights Commission, and called for an investigation into the tragedy

*wonderful!...the Cyprus police stole his dollars?