President Muhammadu Buhari showered praises on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday in Abuja for opening his borders to accommodate millions of refugees, fleeing from conflict areas, particularly Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. President Buhari while describing Erdogan as an exemplary leader for setting an example to the rest of the world described their meeting together as “robust, warm and cordial bilateral relation.” Recall that vigil360 reported that the Turkish leader was in Nigeria for a two-day official visit. The visiting Turkish President, during his meeting with President Buhari raised an alarm over the presence of a terror group hibernating in Nigeria, Fetullah Terrorism Organisation (FETO), as both nations, yesterday, signed eight critical bilateral agreements on energy, defence and hydrocarbon, among others. He said FETO, an atypical, armed terror group, exploiting religious sentiments of the people, was said to be behind the failed 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. “Turkey has been fighting against terrorist organisations for many decades, such as the PKK, PYD, FETO, DASH and other terrorist organisations.
“The perpetrator of the heinous failed coup of July 15, FETO, is still illegally active in Nigeria, and we are continuously sharing our intelligence with the Nigerian interlocutors and authorities. I hope and pray that our Nigerian brothers will forge a closer solidarity in this field with us, the Republic of Turkey. I hope and pray that our visit will yield the most auspicious results and I would like to thank my distinguished brother, President Buhari, for being such a gracious host for me and for my delegation.”
President Erdogan also stressed that Turkey was determined to improve relations with Nigeria to “higher levels on all fields.”
President Erdogan, who departs for Togo today, said Turkey was keenly following developments in Nigeria and expressed the readiness of his country to share capabilities with the West African nation to fight terrorism to a halt.
Speaking President Buhari said ‘‘During the visit, we held very useful discussions on a number of bilateral issues, aimed at strengthening this cordial relationship between Nigeria and Turkey.
‘‘The key issues we touched on included a Series of Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding that had been finalised.
‘‘As a positive outcome, eight major Agreements/MoUs on a number of the key sectors including Energy, Defense Industry, Mining and HydroCarbons among others were signed today. We have agreed that implementation is to commence immediately.
‘‘In the course of our discussions, we also reviewed the travel ban list based on the revised COVID-19 protocols and removed Turkey from Nigeria’s Travel Ban List. Turkey has indeed achieved remarkable success in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic,’’ President Buhari said.
Erdogan added that he said the trade volume between both countries reached 2 billion dollars in 2020, making Nigeria the outstanding and the biggest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
“However, we still believe that this level of trade we have achieved is far from being adequate. We hope and pray that we will be expanding our trade volume up to 5 billion dollars immediately.
Commiserating with Nigeria on the attack in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State, which claimed dozens of lives, the Turkish leader pledged that his country would further cooperate with Nigeria on counter-terrorism as well as in the fields of military, defence and security.
