A Turkish prosecutor on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for 21 suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a coup attempt in 2016.

The prosecutor’s office of the capital Ankara said the warrant was issued as part of an investigation into the Gulen Movement, a group of private Turkish investors who own schools in Nigeria and other parts of the world.

They are the owners of Nigerian Turkish International Colleges spread in different parts of Nigeria namely Abuja, Lagos, Kano etc. and the Nigerian Turkish Nile University.

Recall that during his visit to Nigeria last October,  President of Turkey, Recep Erdogan, said categorically that the terrorists who tried to remove him through a coup in 2016 were still active in Nigeria. He was referring to the owners of Turkish schools in Nigeria many of whom he had declared wanted in Turkey.

Erdogan had in 2016 accused allies of renowned cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who own Turkish schools and hospitals across Nigeria, of sponsoring the coup.

Following the accusation, Turkish envoy in Nigeria, Mr. Hakan Cakil, had at the time called on President Buhari to close the Turkish schools and hospitals in Nigeria belonging to the group of private Turkish investors who are inspired by the philosophy of the Hizmet movement.

But the Nigerian government rejected the proposal thus causing tension between both countries.

During his visit to Nigeria, Erdogan told Buhari that his administration would share intelligence with Nigerian authorities.

He said, “As Turkey, we have been closely monitoring the development in Nigeria, our brotherly and friendly nation. The terrorist organisations, the armed gangs and the marine vendors are continuously active in Nigeria and the Nigerian authorities are continuously fighting them.”

Erdogan always referred to the Gulen Movement members as terrorists, a label they have stoutly repudiated at all times, saying they only preach against the tyranny in Turkey by Erdogan.

But in the latest development, the Turkish prosecutor targeted three lawyers, along with students who were dismissed from the Faculty of Security Sciences of the Police Academy Presidency and the Police College.

The Turkish government accused Gulen Movement of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and attempting a coup on July 15, 2016.

Simultaneous operations are carried out by the police to detain the suspects in six cities, it said.

The Gulen movement, which mainly runs schools around the world, is a community of people named after Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen who is regarded by followers as a spiritual leader.

Ankara accuses U.S.-based Gulen of masterminding the attempted coup, in which a least 250 people were killed.

Turkey requests the extradition of Gulen, but Washington is reluctant to extradite the self-exiled Islamic cleric, saying that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence against him.

The Turkish government has launched a massive crackdown on suspects with links to the network after the coup attempt.