NIGERIAN EMBASSY IN MOSCOW INVADED.

Nigeria's ambassador to Russia, Mr Assam Ekanem Assam, has threatened to recommend the repatriation of some Nigerian students in Moscow, who invaded the country's embassy in Moscow on September 30.

He said the embassy was invaded by 21 ex-Niger Delta militants, who are currently studying in Russia, under the Federal Government's amnesty programme.
He accused the students of destroying furniture, cars, computers, televisions, communications system and a 17th century artefact donated to the embassy by the Federal Ministry of Culture.
The ambassador, who said he was in Nigeria when the incident happened said that the deputy defence attaché was `` beaten up'' by the protesting students.
He said the ex-militants were protesting unpaid allowances by the Federal Government, including warm clothing and transport allowances.
Their other demands included an increase in their housing allowance from 200 dollars to 1,600 dollars a month and immediate payment of their monthly stipend, he said.
"Each person is claiming about $7,800 and they wanted it paid before they leave the embassy."
According to the ambassador, when the embassy staff intimate him about the protests, he contacted Mr Kingsley Kuku, Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs.
"He told me that the students were only owed salaries for the month of September."
He quoted Kuku as saying that the salaries had been sent to the CBN on September 23 for remittance to the students' individual accounts in Moscow.
The ambassador said all efforts to persuade the students to be patient failed as they vented their anger on the staff and property at the embassy.
He said that the embassy alerted the Russian police who detained some of the suspects and subsequently released them.
"Whether they are still welcome in Russia is not a matter for me to decide; that is a matter for the Russian government.
"But as for the Nigerian government, I told these boys that if they result to violence at anytime during the tenancy of their training, I will recommend that they be repatriated back to Nigeria because it is a total disgrace to Nigeria and the Nigerian community.
"I have communicated with the Federal Government and the desk officer in charge of their programme is coming here on Monday."
Assam acknowledged that Nigerian students in Moscow, under various scholarship programmes, usually had difficulty in accessing their grants.
He, however, said that it was not a justification to invade the premises of a foreign embassy.
"Bayesla students have problems and even those Federal Government scholarship students have problems with their grants.
"But in this particular case, we do not have any business with them, their money is paid directly to their individual account from the CBN.
"Everything in the public space at the embassy has been damaged.
"If everybody who was owed salary reacted this way, will there be a world?" the envoy asked.