In the wake of Monday’s deadly earthquake that shook the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, the Nigeria Football Federation announced that all Nigerian footballers in Turkey are safe.
The world was thrown into a state of grief as reports of the earthquakes in Turkey and much later, Syria circulated the internet from the early hours of Monday.
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirmed the well-being of registered players who plying their trade in the Turkish football leagues, assuring of their safety in an Instagram post and also well condoled with victims of the incident.
“The Nigeria Football Federation is sad about the unfortunate earthquake in Kahramanmaras city of Turkey. NFF President, Alh. Ibrahim Gusau has reached out to Nigerian players based in Turkey and they have all confirmed that they are fine. We pray the souls of the departed rest in peace even as we commiserate with the people of Turkey at this time,” the post read.
The initial earthquake was followed by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake which struck in the afternoon, increasing the death toll to over 2,000 people and destroying dozens of structures, according to Aljazeera.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency reported that the earthquake, which has been called the nation’s biggest seismic event in years, occurred at 4:17 a.m. local time.
