The Federal Government has dismissed claims by the Turkish government about the presence of a new terror group operating in Nigeria.
This response follows a statement by Turkey’s Ambassador-designate to Nigeria, Mehmet Poroy, who alleged that the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) is active in Nigeria under the guise of educational and healthcare services. Poroy made the remarks during a dinner in Abuja to commemorate Turkey’s Democracy and National Unity Day, warning that the group poses a threat to every country it operates in.
Reacting to the claim, the National Coordinator of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Maj. Gen. Adamu Laka, assured Nigerians there is no new terror group within the country. “There is no new terrorist group in Nigeria. There’s no need to panic,” he said in an interview.
FETO is linked to the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who died in 2024. Once an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Gulen was accused of masterminding the failed 2016 coup in Turkey and was later convicted in absentia. While Gulen-founded institutions exist in over 160 countries, including Nigeria, no public evidence has emerged linking them to terrorist activity on Nigerian soil.
