Nigeria asks China to investigate Guangzhou death

The Nigerian embassy said Wednesday that it has asked China to investigate the detention by police in Guangzhou of a Nigerian citizen who later died in custody, Bloomberg reported. Witnesses say Celestine Elebechi, born in 1984, fell into a coma after he was beaten on June 18 as he intervened in a dispute between a Chinese motorcycle driver and another Nigerian, the minister for public information at the Nigerian embassy said. Once the police arrived, Elebechi was taken into custody instead of being hospitalized. Hundreds of Africans in Guangzhou surrounded the police station to protest Elebechi’s death, the minister said. Guangzhou is home to nearly 10,000 Nigerians and many others of African nationality, who have often complained of discrimination in the past. Officials are investigating the death “according to the law,” Guangzhou’s Public Security Bureau said yesterday.