Not less than 16 Nigerian students were detained in Moscow, the capital of Russia, for allegedly smashing furniture inside their country’s embassy over unpaid grants, CEOAFRICA.com gathered.

It was discovered that the students detained were removed from the embassy building at the request of Nigerian staff. All the sixteen detainees are enrolled at colleges of higher education in Russia.

Other African students in Russia have protested in the past over their home countries' failure to pay their grants.

The Interior Ministry in Russia said the arrested students face administrative charges.

Our sources disclosed that trouble erupted at the embassy on Malaya Nikitskaya Street following a hearing for the students over their financial problems, according to a police source.

Furniture was smashed in the reception room, after which the students reportedly threatened to damage the embassy's other rooms.

Thousands of African students have passed through the educational system in Moscow and other Russian cities in a tradition dating back to Soviet times, when the communist government subsidised their studies.